title: Nifedipine and nimodipine protect dopaminergic substantia nigra neurons against axotomy-induced cell death in rat vibrosections via modulating inflammatory responses.
abstract: Neurodegeneration of cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons is a major hallmark in Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, respectively. A dysregulation in calcium homeostasis may be part of this process and counteracting calcium influx may have neuroprotective properties in both diseases. Therefore, we investigated the putative neuroprotective or neurotoxic activity of L-type calcium channel (LTCC) inhibitors on cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons in a rat organotypic vibrosection model. Sagittal or coronal vibrosections (200 μm thick) of postnatal day 10 rats were cultured on 0.4 μm semipermeable membranes for 2 weeks with 10 ng/ml nerve growth factor (NGF) and/or glial-cell line derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) to maintain survival of cholinergic or dopaminergic neurons, respectively. Thereafter, sections were incubated with 0.1, 1 or 10 μM isradipine, nicardipine or verapamil for 2 weeks to explore cytotoxicity. Alternatively, in order to explore neuroprotective activity, vibrosections were incubated without growth factors but with isradipine or verapamil or with nicardipine, nimodipine or nifedipine from the beginning for 4 weeks. Our data show that all LTCC inhibitors exhibited no neurotoxic effect on cholinergic and dopaminergic neurons. Further, LTCC inhibitors did not have any neuroprotective activity on cholinergic neurons. However, nimodipine and nifedipine significantly enhanced the survival of dopaminergic substantia nigra (SN) but not ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons, while nicardipine, isradipine and verapamil had no effect. Nifedipine (and more potently GDNF) reduced inflammatory cytokines (macrophage inflammatory protein-2, tumor necrosis factor-α), but did not influence oxidative stress or caspase-3 activity and did not interfere with iron-mediated overload. Our data show that nifedipine and nimodipine are very potent to enhance the survival of axotomized SN neurons, possibly influencing inflammatory processes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychiatry and Experimental Alzheimer׳s Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Daschil
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Psychiatry and Experimental Alzheimer׳s Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria. Electronic address: christian.humpel@i-med.ac.at.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Humpel
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019771:Axotomy; D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers / Q000494:pharmacology; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type / Q000378:metabolism; D016923:Cell Death / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D059329:Cholinergic Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D059290:Dopaminergic Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D017275:Isradipine / Q000633:toxicity; D015213:Neuroimmunomodulation / Q000187:drug effects; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009529:Nicardipine / Q000633:toxicity; D009543:Nifedipine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009553:Nimodipine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013378:Substantia Nigra / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D046509:Tissue Culture Techniques; D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D014700:Verapamil / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D002121:Calcium Channel Blockers; D020746:Calcium Channels, L-Type; D018696:Neuroprotective Agents; D009553:Nimodipine; D014700:Verapamil; D009529:Nicardipine; D009543:Nifedipine; D017275:Isradipine
keywords: Alzheimer׳s disease; Calcium; L-type calcium channel inhibitor; Neuroprotection; Neurotoxicity; Parkinson׳s disease