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In the present study, we evaluated the expression of some proliferation and differentiation markers in 15 DIV astrocyte cultures pretreated or not with 0.5 mM glutamate for 24 h and than maintained under chronic or acute treatment with 50 μM R(+)enantiomer or raceme alpha-lipoic acid (ALA). GFAP expression significantly increased after (R+)enantiomer acute-treatment and also in glutamate-pretreated ones. Vimentin expression increased after R(+)enantiomer acute-treatment, but it decreased after raceme acute-treatment. Nestin expression drastically increased after acute raceme-treatment in glutamate-pretreated or not cultures, but significantly decreased after (R+)enantiomer acute and chronic-treatments. Cyclin D1 expression increased in raceme acute-treated cultures pretreated with glutamate. MAP-kinase expression slightly increased after (R+)enantiomer acute treatment in glutamate-pretreated or unpretreated ones. These preliminary findings may better clarify antioxidant and metabolic role played by ALA in proliferating and differentiating astrocyte cultures suggesting an interactive cross-talk between glial and neuronal cells, after brain lesions or damages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present investigation was to study the effects of choline and choline-containing phospholipids CDP-choline (CDPC) and L-alpha-glyceryl-phosphorylcholine (AGPC) on transglutaminase (TG) activity and expression in primary astrocyte cultures. TG is an important Ca2+-dependent protein that represents a normal constituent of nervous systems during fetal stages of development, playing a role in cell signal transduction, differentiation, and apoptosis. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) analysis showed an increase of TG activity in astrocyte cultures treated with choline, CDPC, or AGPC at 0.1 μM or 1 μM concentrations. Comparatively, AGPC induced the most conspicuous effects enhancing monodansyl-cadaverine fluorescence both in cytosol and in nuclei, supporting the evidence of the important role played by AGPC throughout differentiation processes tightly correlated to nucleus-cytosol cross- talk during astroglial cells proliferation and development. Western blot analysis showed that in 24h 1 μM AGPC and choline-treated astrocytes increased TG-2, whereas no effect was observed in 24h 1 μM CDP-choline treated astrocytes. Our data suggest a crucial role of choline precursors during different stages of astroglial cell proliferation and differentiation in cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]