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Neuronal death through activation of the p53 stress response pathway has been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders. The mechanisms regulating p53 accumulation and function in neurons are poorly understood. Recent evidence has demonstrated that Mdm2 is a major inhibitor of p53 that binds to and targets p53 for ubiquitin-mediated degradation. Here we demonstrate increased expression and co-localization of p53 and Mdm2 in the nuclei of degenerating neurons following treatment with either the excitotoxin, kainic acid, or the topoisomerase I inhibitor, camptothecin. Co-immunoprecipitation studies showed that p53-Mdm2 complexes were present in neuronal lysates. Dual immunofluorescence microscopy demonstrated that these complexes accumulated in neurons with a striking decrease in free ubiquitin levels. Exogenous ubiquitin restored p53 degradation to extracts from injured neurons confirming that Mdm2 function was intact. Finally, antisense-mediated downregulation of ubiquitin in cultured hippocampal neurons resulted in p53 and Mdm2 accumulation as well as apoptotic death. These results point to a novel mechanism to stabilize p53 and promote neuronal cell death in the central nervous system.

Previous studies have implicated the tumor suppressor gene, p53, in neuronal apoptosis due to excitotoxin treatment. To test whether p53 protein functions as a transcription factor during excitotoxic cell death, we used electrophoretic mobility shift assays to measure p53 sequence-specific DNA-binding activity following kainic acid (KA)-induced seizures. A rapid and significant increase in p53 DNA-binding activity was observed in extracts from kainate-vulnerable brain regions at 2.5 h after seizure onset, an effect which lasted up to 16 h after seizure-onset. DNA binding activity returned to normal by 30 h after KA injection. Pre-treatment with the protein synthesis inhibitor cycloheximide, as well as pre-incubation with PAb421, a p53 monoclonal antibody, significantly attenuated p53 DNA-binding activity induced by KA treatment. These results indicate that p53 protein may function as a transcription factor, following KA treatment, to regulate the expression of p53-responsive genes involved in neuronal apoptosis., (Copyright 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.)

Our earlier autoradiographic work had documented a wide distribution of vasopressin receptors in the hippocampus [R.E. Brinton, K.W. Gee, J.K. Wamsley, T.P. Davis, H.I. Yamamura, Regional distribution of putative vasopressin receptors in rat brain and pituitary by quantitative autoradiography, in: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 81 (1984) pp. 7248-7252; C. Chen, R.D. Brinton, T.J. Shors, R.F. Thompson, [Arg 8]-Vasopressin-induction of long lasting potentiation of synaptic transmission in the dentate gyrus, Hippocampus 3 (1993) 193-203.] which suggested the possibility that receptors for vasopressin were present in both neurons and glia. In the periphery, vasopressin is a potent mitogen in select proliferative cell types [E. Rozengurt, A. Legg, P. Pettican, Vasopressin stimulation of mouse 3T3 cell growth, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 76 (1979) pp. 1284-1287.] which also suggested a possible association between vasopressin receptor activation and the proliferative capacity of astrocytes. We therefore investigated whether vasopressin would induce the expression of the immediate early response gene, NGFI-A (also known as zif/268, ZENK, egr-1, krox 24), which is associated with initiation of mitogenesis [M. Sheng, M.E. Greenberg, The regulation and function of c-fos and other immediate early genes in the nervous system, Neuron, 4 (1990) pp. 477-485.]. Cultured hippocampal glial cells were exposed to vasopressin or a selective V1 vasopressin receptor agonist and in situ hybridization for NGFI-A mRNA was conducted. Results of these experiments demonstrated that vasopressin induced a highly significant dose-dependent increase in the number of cells expressing NGFI-A. Studies to determine the receptor subtype mediating vasopressin induction of NGFI-A were conducted utilizing the specific V1 agonist, [Phe2, Ile3, Orn8]-vasopressin. The V1 receptor agonist induced a highly significant dose dependent increase in the number of grains per NGFI-A positive cell. Time course analysis demonstrated that V1 agonist induction of NGFI-A occurred within 5 min, was maximally induced at 15 min of exposure and exhibited a gradual decline within 30 min of exposure which continued to decline over the 60 min time course. Glial cell responsivity was selective in that vasopressin and V1 agonist induction of NGFI-A occurred in a subpopulation of glial cells. Within a sea of glial cells, vasopressin and V1 agonist would induce islands of NGFI-A positive cells. Results of combined immunocytochemical labeling for the astrocyte specific marker, GFAP, and in situ hybridization for NGFI-A demonstrated that V1 agonist-induced NGFI-A expression occurred in GFAP positive cells. We observed no evidence for V1 agonist induction of NGFI-A in neurons. Collectively, these data document that vasopressin, acting via V1 vasopressin receptors, induces a highly significant increase in NGFI-A expression in select GFAP positive hippocampal astrocytes. To our knowledge, these data are the first report of a vasopressin mediated response in hippocampal glial cells. The potential functional significance of these findings is discussed., (Copyright 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.)

The present study employed differential library screening to identify genes associated with kainic acid (KA)-mediated selective neuronal death. One of the isolated clones was lamp-1, which encodes a major lysosomal membrane protein that is also present in the cell membrane. Following systemic KA treatment, lamp-1 was induced in vulnerable hippocampal and other limbic regions. This effect was blocked by cycloheximide (CHX) pre-treatment. Northern blot analysis also demonstrated the presence of lamp-1 transcripts in non-neural tissues. These findings suggest a novel role for lysosomal membrane proteins as markers of selective neuronal vulnerability.

Previous studies suggested the existence of V1a vasopressin receptors (V1aR) in the cerebral cortex. Here, we investigated the cellular and regional localization of V1aR in the E18 rat cerebral cortex using RT-PCR and Southern blot analysis of V1aR mRNA derived from enriched cultures of neurons, astroglia, and oligodendroglia from four cortical regions (rostral, caudal, dorsal and ventral). V1aR mRNA was detected in each of the cell types within each of the regions studied. These data indicate that V1aR is broadly distributed throughout the cerebral cortex and suggest that vasopressin plays an important role in cortical functions.

Tropomodulin is a 40.6 kDa tropomyosin-binding protein associated with actin filaments in muscle and the membrane cytoskeleton in erythrocytes. We have detected tropomodulin mRNA and protein in brains of rats by northern and western blot analyses. In situ hybridization of rat brain and spinal cord sections shows tropomodulin expression in the cerebellum, neocortex, hippocampus, and anterior horn of the spinal cord. Tropomodulin expression is first observed around day 15 after birth and increases through day 24. The temporal and spatial changes in tropomodulin expression during cerebellar development parallel those for brain tropomyosin. Tropomodulin mRNA increases in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus following prolonged seizure activity induced by kainic acid administration; the increase is clearly evident 8 h after initiation of seizures and is still present 1 week later. However, Western blot analysis of tropomodulin protein level in the dentate gyrus before and after seizure induction show only slight increases in tropomodulin protein concentration, suggesting tight regulation of tropomodulin expression at the translational level. The developmental expression of tropomodulin, together with the induction of tropomodulin mRNA production in the dentate gyrus after kainic acid treatment, suggests a role for tropomodulin in neuronal organization and plasticity.

In this report, we demonstrate that the brain-specific ras nucleotide-exchange factor, cdc25NEF-B, is expressed in specific neuronal populations in the juvenile rat brain. Because cdc25NEF-B likely regulates one or more of the vertebrate ras proteins, H-, K- and N-ras, we also examined their levels of expression and pattern of expression in the juvenile rat brain. We find cdc25NEF-B to be highly expressed in the hippocampus, some deep nuclei, neocortex, and the granule cell layer of the anterior lobules of the cerebellum. Our observations suggest a functional link between cdc25NEF-B and H-ras in a neuronal signal transduction pathway.

Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) is the rate-limiting enzyme in polyamine synthesis and is regulated by both transcription-dependent and transcription-independent mechanisms. We compared the effects of asparagine, an amino acid previously shown to increase ODC activity in adult hippocampal slices, on ODC mRNA and activity in adult and neonatal hippocampal slices. In addition, we evaluated the effects of asparagine on ODC activity following seizure activity elicited by systemic administration of kainic acid (KA) in both adult and neonatal rats. Asparagine produced an increase in ODC gene expression and activity in both adult and neonatal hippocampal slices. The increase in ODC activity elicited by asparagine in hippocampal slices was the same in control animals as in animals sacrificed 16 h after KA-induced seizure activity. The asparagine-elicited increase in ODC activity in neonatal and adult hippocampal slices was blocked by the RNA synthesis inhibitor, actinomycin D. Finally, polyamines produced an inhibition of ODC activity in neonatal hippocampal slices. The results indicate that the regulation of the expression and activity of ODC is similar in neonatal and adult hippocampus.

In the present study we examined the relationship between the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) in the dentate gyrus of anesthetized rats and activation of immediate early genes (IEGs; c-fos and zif/268) using several different high-frequency stimulation paradigms. Stimulation parameters that effectively induced LTP were not associated with IEG activation. Conversely, stimulation parameters that failed to induce LTP consistently resulted in IEG activation. These results suggest that there is a negative correlation between IEG activation and LTP, and that activation of IEGs is neither necessary nor sufficient for the induction of LTP.