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Morphological Effects of Estrogen on Cholinergic Neurons In Vitro Involves Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases
Citation
Dominguez, R and Jalali, C and de Lacalle, S, Morphological Effects of Estrogen on Cholinergic Neurons In Vitro Involves Activation of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinases, Journal of Neuroscience, 24, (4) pp. 982-990. ISSN 0270-6474 (2004) [Refereed Article]
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Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2004 Society for Neuroscience. Licensed under Creative Commons AttributionAttribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0)
DOI: doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2586-03.2004
Abstract
In the present study, we examined the ability of estrogen to enhance cholinergic neurite
arborization in vitro and identified the signal transduction cascade associated with this effect.
Basal forebrain primordia collected from rat pups on postnatal day 1 were cultured for 2 weeks
and then treated with 5 nM 17β-estradiol for 24 hr. Cholinergic neurons were identified
immunocytochemically with an antibody against the vesicular acetylcholine transporter and
digitally photographed. Morphological analysis indicated that female cultures respond to estrogen
treatment with an increase in total neurite length per neuron (4.5-fold over untreated controls) and
in total branch segment number per neuron (2.3-fold over controls). In contrast, there was no
change in total neurite length per neuron in male cultures, and we also observed a decrease in total
branch segment number per neuron (0.5-fold below controls). Detailed histograms indicated that
estrogen increases primary and secondary branch length and number and also increases terminal
neuritic branches to the seventh order in female cultures. In a second set of experiments, we
investigated the signal transduction cascade involved in this response, and found that an upstream
extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor blocked the ability of estrogen to enhance
outgrowth in female cultures. Our study provides strong evidence in support of the fact that the
ERK pathway is required for estrogen-induced structural plasticity in the cholinergic system of
female rats. Understanding the intracellular processes that underlie the response of cholinergic
neurons to estrogen provides a necessary step in elucidating how cholinergic neurons can be
particularly susceptible to degeneration in postmenopausal women.
Item Details
Item Type: | Refereed Article |
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Keywords: | Estrogen, signal transduction, ERK, cholinergic, morphology |
Research Division: | Biological Sciences |
Research Group: | Zoology |
Research Field: | Animal cell and molecular biology |
Objective Division: | Expanding Knowledge |
Objective Group: | Expanding knowledge |
Objective Field: | Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
UTAS Author: | Dominguez, R (Dr Reymundo Dominguez) |
ID Code: | 122235 |
Year Published: | 2004 |
Web of Science® Times Cited: | 48 |
Deposited By: | Medicine |
Deposited On: | 2017-11-06 |
Last Modified: | 2018-09-20 |
Downloads: | 70 View Download Statistics |
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