title: Cigarette smoking decreases neurotrophin-3 expression in rat hippocampus after transient forebrain ischemia.
abstract: Stroke is a common cause of death and severe disability among adults in developed countries. Cigarette smoking adversely affects human health in many ways and is considered to be a risk factor for a stroke. However, the mechanism that determines the relative importance of neurotrophins in this process remains unclear. To study the effect of chronic cigarette smoking on ischemic stroke, in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry were employed to detect the mRNA and protein expression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), respectively, which is thought to play a critical role in protection against neuronal death in brain ischemia. Rats, with or without chronic cigarette smoking, were subjected to 20 min of transient forebrain ischemia. Distribution and quantification of mRNA and protein of NT-3 in the whole hippocampus and the cell death in the hippocampal CA1-CA3 regions were determined in these rats. Experimental results show that chronic cigarette smoking produces a significantly delay and persistent down-regulation of ischemia-induced NT-3 mRNA and protein changes at 6-24h post-ischemia, and seemingly increases neuron death 7 days after reperfusion. These experimental results indicate that by influencing NT-3 expression, directly or indirectly, chronic cigarette smoking has a potentially harmful effect when acute brain ischemia attacks.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chia-Yi, and College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jen-Tsung
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Chen-Nen
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: June Hsieh
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chiu-Yen
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.forename: Hsu-Huei
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.forename: Wan-Chun
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Tsong-Hai
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D020933:Neurotrophin 3 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000008:administration & dosage; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000473:pathology*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012907:Smoking; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D020933:Neurotrophin 3; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D009538:Nicotine