title: Coupling diverse routes of calcium entry to mitochondrial dysfunction and glutamate excitotoxicity.
abstract: Overactivation of NMDA receptors (NMDARs) is a critical early step in glutamate-evoked excitotoxic injury of CNS neurons. Distinct NMDAR-coupled pathways specified by, for example, receptor location or subunit composition seem to govern glutamate-induced excitotoxic death, but there is much uncertainty concerning the underlying mechanisms of pathway selection. Here we ask whether, and if so how, route-specific vulnerability is coupled to Ca(2+) overload and mitochondrial dysfunction, which is also a known, central component of exitotoxic injury. In cultured hippocampal neurons, overactivation of only extrasynaptic NMDARs resulted in Ca(2+) entry strong enough to promote Ca(2+) overload, which subsequently leads to mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death. Receptor composition per se appears not to be a primary factor for specifying signal coupling, as NR2B inhibition abolished Ca(2+) loading and was protective only in predominantly NR2B-expressing young neurons. In older neurons expressing comparable levels of NR2A- and NR2B-containing NMDARs, amelioration of Ca(2+) overload required the inhibition of extrasynaptic receptors containing both NR2 subunits. Prosurvival synaptic stimuli also evoked Ca(2+) entry through both N2A- and NR2B-containing NMDARs, but, in contrast to excitotoxic activation of extrasynaptic NMDARs, produced only low-amplitude cytoplasmic Ca(2+) spikes and modest, nondamaging mitochondrial Ca(2+) accumulation. The results--showing that the various routes of excitotoxic Ca(2+) entry converge on a common pathway involving Ca(2+) overload-induced mitochondrial dysfunction--reconcile and unify many aspects of the "route-specific" and "calcium load-dependent" views of exitotoxic injury.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurobiology, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
authors.forename: Ruslan I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Stanika
authors.forename: Natalia B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Pivovarova
authors.forename: Christine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Brantner
authors.forename: Charlotte A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Watts
authors.forename: Christine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Winters
authors.forename: S Brian
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Andrews
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005971:Glutamates / Q000633:toxicity*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D015640:Ion Channel Gating; D017136:Ion Transport; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000378:metabolism; D013569:Synapses / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005971:Glutamates; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D002118:Calcium