title: Effects of environmental tobacco smoke on adult rat brain biochemistry.
abstract: Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has been linked to deleterious health effects, particularly pulmonary and cardiac disease; yet, the general public considers ETS benign to brain function in adults. In contrast, epidemiological data have suggested that ETS impacts the brain and potentially modulates neurodegenerative disease. The present study begins to examine yet unknown biochemical effects of ETS on the adult mammalian brain. In the developed animal model, adult male rats were exposed to ETS 3 h a day for 3 weeks. Biochemical data showed altered glial fibrillary acid protein levels as a main treatment effect of ETS, suggestive of reactive astrogliosis. Yet, markers of oxidative and cell stress were unaffected by ETS exposure in the brain regions examined. Increased proteolytic degradation of alphaII-spectrin by caspase-3 and the dephosphorylation of serine(116) on PEA-15 indicated greater apoptotic cell death modulated by the extrinsic pathway in the brains of ETS-exposed animals. Further, beta-synuclein was upregulated by ETS, a neuroprotective protein previously reported to exhibit anti-apoptotic and anti-fibrillogenic properties. These findings demonstrate that ETS exposure alters the neuroproteome of the adult rat brain, and suggest modulation of inflammatory and cell death processes.
authors: Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 980709, Richmond, VA 23298-0709, USA.
authors: Brian F
authors: BF
authors: Fuller
authors: Mark S
authors: MS
authors: Gold
authors: Kevin K W
authors: KK
authors: Wang
authors: Andrew K
authors: AK
authors: Ottens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects*; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002648:Child; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D018384:Oxidative Stress; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020543:Proteome / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D051846:beta-Synuclein / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D015415:Biomarkers; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein; C490443:Pea15 protein, rat; D010750:Phosphoproteins; D020543:Proteome; D014028:Tobacco Smoke Pollution; D051846:beta-Synuclein