Rona G. Giffard

Genomic Analysis of Reactive Astrogliosis

Reactive astrogliosis is characterized by a profound change in astrocyte phenotype in response to all CNS injuries and diseases. To better understand the reactive astrocyte state, we used Affymetrix GeneChip arrays to profile gene expression in populations of reactive astrocytes isolated at various time points after induction using two mouse injury models, ischemic stroke and neuroinflammation. We find reactive gliosis consists of a rapid, but quickly attenuated, induction of gene expression after insult and identify induced Lcn2 and Serpina3n as strong markers of reactive astrocytes. Strikingly, reactive astrocyte phenotype strongly depended on the type of inducing injury. Although there is a core set of genes that is upregulated in reactive astrocytes from both injury models, at least 50% of the altered gene expression is specific to a given injury type. Reactive astrocytes in ischemia exhibited a molecular phenotype that suggests that they may be beneficial or protective, whereas reactive astrocytes induced by LPS exhibited a phenotype that suggests that they may be detrimental. These findings demonstrate that, despite well established commonalities, astrocyte reactive gliosis is a highly heterogeneous state in which astrocyte activities are altered to respond to the specific injury. This raises the question of how many subtypes of reactive astrocytes exist. Our findings provide transcriptome databases for two subtypes of reactive astrocytes that will be highly useful in generating new and testable hypotheses of their function, as well as for providing new markers to detect different types of reactive astrocytes in human neurological diseases.

Acidosis reduces NMDA receptor activation, glutamate neurotoxicity, and oxygen-glucose deprivation neuronal injury in cortical cultures

The acidosis which accompanies cerebral ischemia in vivo has been thought to contribute to subsequent neuronal injury. However, recent electrophysiological recordings from hippocampal neurons suggest that H+ can attenuate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor-mediated cation influx, likely a key event in the pathogenesis of ischemic neuronal injury. Here we report that moderate extracellular acidosis (pH 6.5) markedly reduced the inward whole cell current induced by NMDA on cultured cortical neurons; at pH 6.1, kainate-induced current was additionally reduced. Furthermore, such acidosis reduced the cortical neuronal injury caused by toxic glutamate exposure, as well as the neuronal degeneration and accumulation of 45Ca2+ induced by combined oxygen and glucose deprivation. These findings raise the possibility that moderate acidosis may decrease cortical neuronal vulnerability to ischemic damage.

Microglia Potentiate Damage to Blood–Brain Barrier Constituents Improvement by Minocycline In Vivo and In Vitro

Background— Blood–brain barrier (BBB) disruption after stroke can worsen ischemic injury by increasing edema and causing hemorrhage. We determined the effect of microglia on the BBB and its primary constituents, endothelial cells (ECs) and astrocytes, after ischemia using in vivo and in vitro models. Methods and Results— Primary astrocytes, ECs, or cocultures were prepared with or without added microglia. Primary ECs were more resistant to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion than astrocytes. ECs plus astrocytes showed intermediate vulnerability. Microglia added to cocultures nearly doubled cell death. This increase was prevented by minocycline and apocynin. In vivo, minocycline reduced infarct volume and neurological deficits and markedly reduced BBB disruption and hemorrhage in mice after experimental stroke. Conclusions— Inhibition of microglial activation may protect the brain after ischemic stroke by improving BBB viability and integrity. Microglial inhibitors may prove to be an important treatment adjunct to fibrinolysis.

The neuroprotective potential of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70)

In response to many metabolic disturbances and injuries, including stroke, neurodegenerative disease, epilepsy and trauma, the cell mounts a stress response with induction of a variety of proteins, most notably the 70-kDa heat shock protein (HSP70). Whether stress proteins are neuroprotective has been hotly debated, as these proteins might be merely an epiphenomenon unrelated to cell survival. Only recently, with the availability of transgenic animals and gene transfer, has it become possible to overexpress the gene encoding HSP70 to test directly the hypothesis that stress proteins protect cells from injury. A few groups have now shown that overproduction of HSP70 leads to protection in several different models of nervous system injury. This review will cover these studies, along with the potential mechanisms by which HSP70 might mediate cellular protection.

Antiapoptotic and anti-inflammatory mechanisms of heat-shock protein protection.

Abstract: We and others have previously shown that heat‐shock proteins (HSPs) are involved in protecting the brain from a variety of insults including stroke, epilepsy, and other related insults. While the mechanism of this protection has largely been thought to be due to their chaperone functions (i.e., preventing abnormal protein folding or aggregation), recent work has shown that HSPs may also directly interfere with other cell death pathways such as apoptosis and inflammation. Using models of cerebral ischemic and ischemia‐like injury, we overexpressed the 70‐kDa heat‐shock protein (HSP70) using gene transfer or by studying a transgenic mouse model. HSP70 protected neurons and astrocytes from experimental stroke and stroke‐like insults. HSP70 transgenic mice also had better neurological scores following experimental stroke compared to their wild‐type littermates. Overexpressing HSP70 was associated with less apoptotic cell death and increased expression of the antiapoptotic protein, Bcl‐2. Furthermore, HSP70 suppressed microglial/monocyte activation following experimental stroke. HSP70 overexpression also led to the reduction of matrix metalloproteinases. We suggest that HSPs are capable of protecting brain cells from lethal insults through a variety of mechanisms and should be explored as a potential therapy against stroke and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Selective dysfunction of hippocampal CA1 astrocytes contributes to delayed neuronal damage after transient forebrain ischemia

Transient global ischemia, as with cardiac arrest, causes loss of CA1 hippocampal neurons 2–4 d later, whereas nearby dentate gyrus (DG) neurons are relatively resistant. Whether differential astrocyte vulnerability in ischemic injury contributes to CA1 neuronal death is uncertain. Here, we find that CA1 astrocytes are more sensitive to ischemia than DG astrocytes. In rats subjected to transient forebrain ischemia, CA1 astrocytes lose glutamate transport activity and immunoreactivity for GFAP, S100β, and glutamate transporter GLT-1 within a few hours of reperfusion, but without astrocyte cell death. Oxidative stress may contribute to the observed selective CA1 changes, because CA1 astrocytes show early increases in mitochondrial free radicals and reduced mitochondrial membrane potential. Similar changes were not observed in DG astrocytes. Upregulation of GLT-1 expression in astrocytes with ceftriaxone protected CA1 neurons from forebrain ischemia. We suggest that greater oxidative stress and loss of GLT-1 function selectively in CA1 astrocytes is central to the well known delayed death of CA1 neurons.

Mild Hypothermia Reduces Apoptosis of Mouse Neurons In Vitro Early in the Cascade

Recent experimental work has shown that hypothermia with even small decreases in temperature is broadly neuroprotective, but the mechanism of this protection remains unclear. Although reduction of metabolism could explain protection by deep hypothermia, it does not explain the robust protection found with mild hypothermia. Several reports have suggested that ischemic apoptosis is reduced by hypothermia. The authors examined the effects of hypothermia on neuronal apoptosis using serum deprivation, a well-accepted model that induces neuronal apoptosis. Mild hypothermia (33°C) significantly reduced the number of morphologically apoptotic neurons to less than half the number seen in normothermic culture temperatures (37°C) after 48 hours. They examined the effect of hypothermia on several steps in the cascade. Caspase-3, −8, and −9 activity was significantly increased after 24 hours at 37°C, and was significantly lower in cultures deprived of serum at 33°C. Cytochrome c translocation was reduced by hypothermia. Western blot analysis failed to detect significant changes in Bax, bcl-2, or hsp-70 at early time points, whereas hypothermia significantly reduced cJun N-terminal kinase activation. The authors conclude that small decreases in temperature inhibit apoptosis very early, possibly at the level of the initiation of apoptosis, as suggested by reduced cJun N-terminal kinase activation and before the translocation of cytochrome c, with subsequent prevention of caspase activation.

Chaperones, protein aggregation, and brain protection from hypoxic/ischemic injury

SUMMARY Chaperones, especially the stress inducible Hsp70, have been studied for their potential to protect the brain from ischemic injury. While they protect from both global and focal ischemia in vivo and cell culture models of ischemia/reperfusion injury in vitro, the mechanism of protection is not well understood. Protein aggregation is part of the etiology of chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntingtons and Alzheimers, and recent data demonstrate protein aggregates in animal models of stroke. We now demonstrate that overexpression of Hsp70 in hippocampal CA1 neurons reduces evidence of protein aggregation under conditions where neuronal survival is increased. We have also demonstrated protection by the cochaperone Hdj-2 in vitro and demonstrated that this is associated with reduced protein aggregation identified by ubiquitin immunostaining. Hdj-2 can prevent protein aggregate formation by itself, but can only facilitate protein folding in conjunction with Hsp70. Pharmacological induction of Hsp70 was found to reduce both apoptotic and necrotic astrocyte death induced by glucose deprivation or oxygen glucose deprivation. Protection from ischemia and ischemia-like injury by chaperones thus involves at least anti-apoptotic, anti-necrotic and anti-protein aggregation mechanisms.

Astrocytes: Targets for Neuroprotection in Stroke

In the past two decades, over 1000 clinical trials have failed to demonstrate a benefit in treating stroke, with the exception of thrombolytics. Although many targets have been pursued, including antioxidants, calcium channel blockers, glutamate receptor blockers, and neurotrophic factors, often the focus has been on neuronal mechanisms of injury. Broader attention to loss and dysfunction of non-neuronal cell types is now required to increase the chance of success. Of the several glial cell types, this review will focus on astrocytes. Astrocytes are the most abundant cell type in the higher mammalian nervous system, and they play key roles in normal CNS physiology and in central nervous system injury and pathology. In the setting of ischemia astrocytes perform multiple functions, some beneficial and some potentially detrimental, making them excellent candidates as therapeutic targets to improve outcome following stroke and in other central nervous system injuries. The older neurocentric view of the central nervous system has changed radically with the growing understanding of the many essential functions of astrocytes. These include K+ buffering, glutamate clearance, brain antioxidant defense, close metabolic coupling with neurons, and modulation of neuronal excitability. In this review, we will focus on those functions of astrocytes that can both protect and endanger neurons, and discuss how manipulating these functions provides a novel and important strategy to enhance neuronal survival and improve outcome following cerebral ischemia.

Activation of Class II or III Metabotropic Glutamate Receptors Protects Cultured Cortical Neurons Against Excitotoxic Degeneration

Trans‐1‐aminocyclopentane‐1,3‐dicarboxylic acid, a mixed agonist of all metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) subtypes, is known to produce either neurotoxic or neuroprotective effects. We have therefore hypothesized that individual mGluR subtypes differentially affect neurodegenerative processes. Selective agonists of subtypes which belong to mGluR class II or III, such as (2s, 1′R,2′R,3′R)‐2‐(2,3‐dicarboxycyclopropyl)‐glycine (DCG‐IV) (specific for subtypes mGluR2 or 3) or L‐2‐amino‐4‐phosphonobutanoate and L‐serine‐O‐phosphate (specific for subtypes mGluR4, 6 or 7), were highly potent and efficacious in protecting cultured cortical neurons against toxicity induced by either a transient exposure to N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) or a prolonged exposure to kainate. In contrast, agonists that preferentially activate class I mGluR subtypes (mGluR1 or 5), such as quisqualate or trans‐azetidine‐2,3‐dicarboxylic acid, were inactive. DCG‐IV was still neuroprotective when applied to cultures after the toxic pulse with NMDA. This delayed rescue effect was associated with a reduction in the release of endogenous glutamate, a process that contributes to the maturation of neuronal damage. We conclude that agonists of class II or III mGluRs are of potential interest in the experimental therapy of acute or chronic neurodegenerative disorders.