Tag Archives: astrocytes
High thiamine dose restores levels of specific astroglial proteins in rat brain astrocytes affected by chronic ethanol consumption
O. S. Pavlova, A. A. Tykhomyrov, O. A. Mejenskaya,
S. P. Stepanenko, L. I. Chehivska, Yu. M. Parkhomenko
Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
e-mail: aspavlova92@gmail.com
Received: 23 January 2019; Accepted: 17 May 2019
Long-term ethyl alcohol consumption induces a deficiency of essential nutrient thiamine (vitamin B1 ) and profoundly impairs metabolic processes in nervous tissue, resulting in structural and functional alterations in the central nervous system (CNS). This study was performed to evaluate protective effects of thiamine acute dose on the level of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a sensitive marker of astroglia, and B1-related enzyme thiamine pyrophosphokinase (TPK) activity in brain of rats chronically exposed to ethanol. The rats were divided into three groups as follows: i) control group; ii) rats given 15% ethanol solution as drinking water for 9 months (EtOH group), iii) EtOH rats given thiamine per os in a dose of 2.0 mg/kg one day before experiment termination (n = 4 in each group). GFAP levels were analyzed in cerebellum, brain cortex and hippocampus by western blot and immunohistochemistry. Brain TPK activity was measured with the use of the yeast apopyruvate decarboxylase apoenzyme (apoPDC). Thiamine concentration in liver was estimated with the use of thiochrome method. It was demonstrated that GFAP content was dramatically reduced in all studied brain regions of EtOH-exposed rats (approximately by 60%, P < 0.05) compared with control rats indicating profound astroglial dysfunction. Thiamine treatment was shown to recover GFAP levels up to 80% vs. control value in the brain of EtOH-exposed rats (P < 0.05). Ethanol consumption resulted in 3.7-fold decrease in liver thiamine content and 1.4-fold decrease in brain TPK activity, as compared with control (P < 0.05). Thiamine treatment of EtOH-exposed rats significantly elevated B1 liver level, however, had no effect on brain TPK activity. Our data suggest that thiamine deficit can play an important role in alcohol-induced damage to brain astroglia. It is emerged that high-dose thiamine administration can represent effective treatment option against chronic effects of ethanol impact on brain structures.
Plasminogen and its fragments in rat brain: a plausible role for astrocytes in angiostatin generation
A. A. Tykhomyrov1, V. S. Nedzvetsky2,3, C. A. Ağca3,
V. V. Korsa1, T. V. Grinenko1
1Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
2Dnipropetrovsk National University, Dnipro, Ukraine;
3Bingöl University, Bingöl, Turkey;
e-mail: artem_tykhomyrov@ukr.net
The purpose of the present study was to examine the plasminogen localization and to detect levels of its fragments (angiostatins) in various regions of rat brain as well as to establish whether rat brain astrocytes could be involved in angiostatin production. It was shown immunohistochemically that plasminogen is distributed broadly in the various brain regions, with predominant expression in meningeal layer and IV, V, and VI layers or cerebral cortex, dentate gyrus, meningeal and Purkinje cells, molecular and granular layers of cerebellum, as well as vessel walls. Angiostatin polypeptides were detected by Western blot analysis mostly in the cerebral cortex and were represented by 50 and 40-30 kDa polypeptides. In the whole cell lysates from primary cultures of rat astrocytes, immunoreactive polypeptides with Mm ~ 92, 84, 65-60, 50, 40, 38-30 kDa, corresponding to native plasminogen and a variety of its truncated products, including angiostatin polypeptides, were revealed. Incubation of astrocytes with exogenous plasminogen resulted in gradual increasing levels of some plasminogen fragments, particularly 30 kDa protein. Moreover, this polypeptide appeared to be the single angiostatin released by astrocytes in vitro. We report here for the first time that astrocytes are one of the cell types in CNS that could be responsible for angiostatin formation and releasing.