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Amyloid deposition characterizes the pathological lesions of Alzheimer's disease. We investigated the effect of serum deprivation on the regulation of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) mRNA expression in C6 glioma cells. Serum deprivation increased APP mRNA levels approximately 4-fold over controls. This increase was accompanied by changes in the pattern of alternative splicing, including the novel alternatively spliced site at exon 15. The proportion of isoforms containing exons 7 and 8 significantly increased from 61% to 68%, while isoforms lacking these exons decreased from 14% to 8%. The proportion of leukocyte-derived APP, which is a novel alternatively spliced isoform lacking exon 15, significantly increased from 19% to 40%. Among the six major isoforms produced by the two independent splicing sites, L-APP752 which contains exons 7 and 8, but lacks exon 15, increased the most (approximately 10-fold). Our findings provide evidence linking APP expression to alterations in alternative splicing at exon 15. These results demonstrate that in glial cells, APP mRNA regulation involves the alteration in alternative splicing at exons 7, 8 and 15, suggesting that not only increased expression but also an imbalance in the relative abundance of the six APP isoforms in stressed condition might affect the amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer's disease.

The effect of ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) on beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) gene expression was investigated in cultured rat C6 glioma cells and human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. CNTF increased APP mRNA abundance in C6 glioma cells in a dose-dependent manner, with an approximately 3-fold increase in maximum observed after 24 h with a concentration of 1 ng/ml. However, no significant differences in the splicing pattern of the three major isoforms of APP mRNA were apparent between control and CNTF-treated C6 glioma cells. CNTF had no effect on APP mRNA abundance in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells. These findings suggest that CNTF can modulate APP mRNA expression and might affect amyloidogenesis in Alzheimer's disease.