Metallothionein-III knockout mice aggravates the neuronal damage after transient focal cerebral ischemia
Abstract Metallothioneins (MTs) are metal-binding proteins and have four isoforms. MT-III was, at first, found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. MT-III exists mainly in the central nervous system, and the main effects are thought to be anti-oxidative and regulate zinc levels....
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Published in | Brain research Vol. 1292; pp. 148 - 154 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Amsterdam
Elsevier B.V
25.09.2009
Elsevier |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract Metallothioneins (MTs) are metal-binding proteins and have four isoforms. MT-III was, at first, found in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. MT-III exists mainly in the central nervous system, and the main effects are thought to be anti-oxidative and regulate zinc levels. In some previous reports, MT-III exhibited neuroprotective effects in various pathological situations, but its detailed effects are still unclear. In the present study, we examined neuronal damage after a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in MT-III knockout (KO) mice to elucidate the relationship between MT-III and cerebral infarction. There was no significant difference in cerebral infarction after 24-h permanent MCAO between the wild-type and MT-III KO mice. On the other hand, after 2-h MCAO and 22-h reperfusion, cerebral infarction in the MT-III KO mice was aggravated compared with the wild-type mice. Furthermore, fatal rate of MT-III KO mice increased from 3 days after MCAO, and neurological deficits at 5 and 7 days after MCAO of MT-III KO mice were worse than those of wild-type. We examined terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining and the immunostaining of an oxidative stress marker, 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), at 24 h after transient MCAO. In the penumbra lesion, the positive cell numbers in both staining assays were higher in the MT-III KO mice than those of the wild-type mice. These findings indicate that neuronal damage was aggravated by reperfusion injury in the MT-III KO mice compared with the wild-type mice, suggesting that MT-III plays anti-oxidative and neuroprotective roles in transient cerebral ischemia. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0006-8993 1872-6240 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.07.050 |