Brain mitochondrial defects amplify intracellular [Ca2+] rise and neurodegeneration but not Ca2+ entry during NMDA receptor activation.
According to the "indirect" excitotoxicity hypothesis, mitochondrial defects increase Ca2+ entry into neurons by rendering NMDA-R hypersensitive to glutamate. We tested this hypothesis by investigating in the rat striatum and cultured striatal cells how partial mitochondrial complex II inhibition produced by 3-nitropropionic acid (3NP) modifies the toxicity of the NMDA-R agonist quinolinate (QA). We showed that nontoxic 3NP treatment, leading to partial inhibition of complex II activity, greatly exacerbated striatal degeneration produced by slightly toxic QA treatment through an "all-or-nothing" process. The potentiation of QA-induced cell death by 3NP was associated with increased calpain activity and massive calpain-mediated cleavage of several postsynaptic proteins, suggesting major neuronal Ca2+ deregulation in the striatum. However, Ca2+ anomalies probably do not result from NMDA-R hypersensitivity. Indeed, brain imaging experiments using [(18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose indirectly showed that 3NP did not increase QA-induced ionic perturbations at the striatal glutamatergic synapses in vivo. Consistent with this, the exacerbation of QA toxicity by 3NP was not related to an increase in the QA-induced entry of 45Ca2+ into striatal neurons. The present results demonstrate that the potentiation of NMDA-R-mediated excitotoxicity by mitochondrial defects involves primarily intracellular Ca2+ deregulation, in the absence of NMDA-R hypersensitivity.
Unité de Recherche Associée CEA-CNRS 2210, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, Département de Recherches Médicales, Direction des Sciences du Vivant, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 4 place du Général Leclerc, 91401 Orsay cedex, France.
Carine
C
Jacquard
Yael
Y
Trioulier
François
F
Cosker
Carole
C
Escartin
Nicolas
N
Bizat
Philippe
P
Hantraye
José Manuel
JM
Cancela
Gilles
G
Bonvento
Emmanuel
E
Brouillet
D000818:Animals; D020013:Calcium Signaling / Q000502:physiology*; D002154:Calpain / Q000378:metabolism; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D009574:Nitro Compounds / Q000494:pharmacology; D011422:Propionates / Q000494:pharmacology; D017378:Quinolinic Acid / Q000009:adverse effects; D051381:Rats; D011917:Rats, Inbred Lew; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000378:metabolism*
D009574:Nitro Compounds; D011422:Propionates; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D002154:Calpain; D017378:Quinolinic Acid; C015392:3-nitropropionic acid