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Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury
Astrogliosis is a process that involves morphological and biochemical changes associated with astrocyte activation in response to cell damage in the brain. The upregulation of intermediate filament proteins including glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), nestin and vimentin are often used as indic...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2012
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3479098/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23110066 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047311 |
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author | Theodoric, Nicolas Bechberger, John F. Naus, Christian C. Sin, Wun-Chey |
author_facet | Theodoric, Nicolas Bechberger, John F. Naus, Christian C. Sin, Wun-Chey |
author_sort | Theodoric, Nicolas |
collection | PubMed |
description | Astrogliosis is a process that involves morphological and biochemical changes associated with astrocyte activation in response to cell damage in the brain. The upregulation of intermediate filament proteins including glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), nestin and vimentin are often used as indicators for astrogliosis. Although connexin43 (Cx43), a channel protein widely expressed in adult astrocytes, exhibits enhanced immunoreactivity in the peri-lesion region, its role in astrogliosis is still unclear. Here, we correlated the temporal and spatial expression of Cx43 to the activation of astrocytes and microglia in response to an acute needle stab wound in vivo. We found large numbers of microglia devoid of Cx43 in the needle wound at 3 days post injury (dpi) while reactive astrocytes expressing Cx43 were present in the peripheral zone surrounding the injury site. A redistribution of Cx43 to the needle site, corresponding to the increased presence of GFAP-positive reactive astrocytes in the region, was only apparent from 6 dpi and sustained until at least 15 dpi. Interestingly, the extent of microglial activation and subsequent astrogliosis in the brain of Cx43 knockout mice was significantly larger than those of wild type, suggesting that Cx43 expression limits the degree of microgliosis. Although Cx43 is not essential for astrogliosis and microglial activation induced by a needle injury, our results demonstrate that Cx43 is a useful marker for injury induced astrogliosis due to its enhanced expression specifically within a small region of the lesion for an extended period. As a channel protein, Cx43 is a potential in vivo diagnostic tool of asymptomatic brain injury. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3479098 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2012 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-34790982012-10-29 Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury Theodoric, Nicolas Bechberger, John F. Naus, Christian C. Sin, Wun-Chey PLoS One Research Article Astrogliosis is a process that involves morphological and biochemical changes associated with astrocyte activation in response to cell damage in the brain. The upregulation of intermediate filament proteins including glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), nestin and vimentin are often used as indicators for astrogliosis. Although connexin43 (Cx43), a channel protein widely expressed in adult astrocytes, exhibits enhanced immunoreactivity in the peri-lesion region, its role in astrogliosis is still unclear. Here, we correlated the temporal and spatial expression of Cx43 to the activation of astrocytes and microglia in response to an acute needle stab wound in vivo. We found large numbers of microglia devoid of Cx43 in the needle wound at 3 days post injury (dpi) while reactive astrocytes expressing Cx43 were present in the peripheral zone surrounding the injury site. A redistribution of Cx43 to the needle site, corresponding to the increased presence of GFAP-positive reactive astrocytes in the region, was only apparent from 6 dpi and sustained until at least 15 dpi. Interestingly, the extent of microglial activation and subsequent astrogliosis in the brain of Cx43 knockout mice was significantly larger than those of wild type, suggesting that Cx43 expression limits the degree of microgliosis. Although Cx43 is not essential for astrogliosis and microglial activation induced by a needle injury, our results demonstrate that Cx43 is a useful marker for injury induced astrogliosis due to its enhanced expression specifically within a small region of the lesion for an extended period. As a channel protein, Cx43 is a potential in vivo diagnostic tool of asymptomatic brain injury. Public Library of Science 2012-10-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3479098/ /pubmed/23110066 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047311 Text en © 2012 Theodoric et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Theodoric, Nicolas Bechberger, John F. Naus, Christian C. Sin, Wun-Chey Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury |
title | Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury |
title_full | Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury |
title_fullStr | Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury |
title_full_unstemmed | Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury |
title_short | Role of Gap Junction Protein Connexin43 in Astrogliosis Induced by Brain Injury |
title_sort | role of gap junction protein connexin43 in astrogliosis induced by brain injury |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3479098/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23110066 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0047311 |
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