title: Differential roles for caspase-mediated and calpain-mediated cell death in 1- and 3-week-old rat cortical cultures.
abstract: Necrosis and apoptosis are well established as two primary cell death pathways. Mixed neuroglial cultures are commonly used to study cell death mechanisms in neural cells. However, the ages of these cultures vary across studies and little attention has been paid to how cell death processes may change as the cultures mature. To clarify whether neuroglial culture age affects cell death mechanisms, we treated 1- and 3-week-old neuroglial cultures with either the excitotoxic stimulus, N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA), or with the oxidative stressor, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Although NMDA is known to be toxic only in cultures that are at least 2 weeks old, H2O2 is toxic in cultures of all ages. Here, we confirm that, in 1-week-old neuroglial cultures, NMDA does not induce toxicity, whereas H2O2 induces both calpain-mediated and caspase-mediated neuronal death. In 3-week-old cultures, both NMDA and H2O2 trigger calpain-mediated, but not caspase-mediated, neuronal death. Further, we observed a decrease in caspase-3 levels and an increase in calpain levels in untreated neuroglial cultures as they aged. The findings presented here show that neuronal cell death mechanisms vary with culture age and highlight the necessity of considering culture age when interpreting neural cell culture data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6030, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jacob W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Zyskind
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Colacurcio
authors.forename: Kathryn A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Lindl
authors.forename: Jenhao H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Ting
authors.forename: Galina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grigoriev
authors.forename: Kelly L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Jordan-Sciutto
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002154:Calpain / Q000502:physiology*; D020169:Caspases / Q000502:physiology*; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000187:drug effects; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide / Q000494:pharmacology; D016202:N-Methylaspartate / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D016202:N-Methylaspartate; D006861:Hydrogen Peroxide; D002154:Calpain; D020169:Caspases