Liver Growth Factor (LGF) Upregulates Frataxin Protein Expression and Reduces Oxidative Stress in Friedreich's Ataxia Transgenic Mice
Friedreich's ataxia (FA) is a severe disorder with autosomal recessive inheritance that is caused by the abnormal expansion of GAA repeat in intron 1 of FRDA gen. This alteration leads to a partial silencing of frataxin transcription, causing a multisystem disorder disease that includes neurolo...
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Published in | International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 17; no. 12; p. 2066 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
MDPI AG
09.12.2016
MDPI |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Friedreich's ataxia (FA) is a severe disorder with autosomal recessive inheritance that is caused by the abnormal expansion of GAA repeat in intron 1 of FRDA gen. This alteration leads to a partial silencing of frataxin transcription, causing a multisystem disorder disease that includes neurological and non-neurological damage. Recent studies have proven the effectiveness of neurotrophic factors in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. Therefore, we intend to determine if liver growth factor (LGF), which has a demonstrated antioxidant and neuroprotective capability, could be a useful therapy for FA. To investigate the potential therapeutic activity of LGF we used transgenic mice of the FXNtm1MknTg (FXN)YG8Pook strain. In these mice, intraperitoneal administration of LGF (1.6 μg/mouse) exerted a neuroprotective effect on neurons of the lumbar spinal cord and improved cardiac hypertrophy. Both events could be the consequence of the increment in frataxin expression induced by LGF in spinal cord (1.34-fold) and heart (1.2-fold). LGF also upregulated by 2.6-fold mitochondrial chain complex IV expression in spinal cord, while in skeletal muscle it reduced the relation oxidized glutathione/reduced glutathione. Since LGF partially restores motor coordination, we propose LGF as a novel factor that may be useful in the treatment of FA. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 These authors contributed equally to this work. Deceased on 4 November 2016. |
ISSN: | 1422-0067 1661-6596 1422-0067 |
DOI: | 10.3390/ijms17122066 |