title: Calcium Signaling Involvement in Cadmium-Induced Astrocyte Cytotoxicity and Cell Death Through Activation of MAPK and PI3K/Akt Signaling Pathways.
abstract: Cadmium (Cd), a highly ubiquitous toxic heavy metal, can contaminate the environment, including agricultural soil, water and air, via industrial runoff and other sources of pollution. Cd accumulated in the body via direct exposure or through the food chain results in neurodegeneration and many other diseases. Previous studies on its toxicity in the central nervous system (CNS) focused mainly on neurons. To obtain a more comprehensive understanding of Cd toxicity for the CNS, we investigated how astrocytes respond to acute and chronic Cd exposure and its toxic molecular mechanisms. When primary cultures of cerebral cortical astrocytes incubated with 1-300 μM CdCl2, morphological changes, LDH release and cell death were observed in a time and dose-dependent manner. Further studies demonstrated that acute and chronic Cd treatment phosphorylated JNK, p38 and Akt to different degrees, while ERK1/2 was only phosphorylated under low doses of Cd (10 μM) exposure. Inhibition of JNK and PI3K/Akt, but not of p38, could partially protect astrocyte from cytotoxicity in chronic and acute Cd exposure. Moreover, Cd also induced a strong calcium signal, while BAPTA, a specific intracellular calcium (Ca(2+)) chelator, prevented Cd-induced intracellular increase of calcium levels in astrocytes; inhibited the Cd-induced activation of ERK1/2, JNK, p38 and Akt; and also significantly reduced astrocyte cell death. All of these results suggested that the Cd-Ca(2+)-MAPK and PI3K/Akt signaling pathways were involved in Cd-induced toxicity in astrocytes. This toxicity involvement indicates that these pathways may be exploited as a target for the prevention of Cd-induced neurodegenerative diseases.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Institute, Key Laboratory for Neuroscience (Ministry of Education) and Key Laboratory for Neuroscience (National Health and Family Planning Commission), Peking University, 38 Xue Yuan Road, Beijing, 100191, China.
authors.forename: Jiao Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Guo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pang
authors.forename: Rui Chao
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.forename: Xi Hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Jin Ge
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Albert Cheung-Hoi
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000201:enzymology; D002104:Cadmium / Q000633:toxicity*; D020013:Calcium Signaling; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D020935:MAP Kinase Signaling System / Q000187:drug effects*; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000378:metabolism*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D002104:Cadmium; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt