title: Neuropeptide Y can rescue neurons from cell death following the application of an excitotoxic insult with kainate in rat organotypic hippocampal slice cultures.
abstract: In the present work we investigated the neuroprotective role of neuropeptide Y (NPY) after an excitotoxic insult in rat organotypic hippocampal slice cultures. Exposure of 2 week-old rat hippocampal slice cultures to 12muM kainate (KA) for 24h induced neuronal death in dentate gyrus (DG) granular cell layer, CA1 and CA3 pyramidal cell layers, as quantified by cellular propidium iodide (PI) uptake. The activation of Y(1) or Y(2) receptors 30min after starting the exposure to the excitotoxic insult with kainate resulted in neuroprotection by reducing the PI uptake in DG, CA1 and CA3 cell layers. The use of Y(1) or Y(2) receptors antagonists, BIBP3226 (1muM) or BIIE0246 (1muM), resulted in the loss of the neuroprotection induced by the activation of Y(1) or Y(2) receptors, respectively, in all hippocampal subfields. Taken together these results suggest that activation of NPY Y(1) or Y(2) receptors activates neuroprotective pathways that are able to rescue neurons from excitotoxic cell death.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra, 3004-517 Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xapelli
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: J O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Malva
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D007608:Kainic Acid / Q000633:toxicity*; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects*; D009478:Neuropeptide Y / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D009478:Neuropeptide Y; D007608:Kainic Acid