Possible involvement of MAP kinase family in cyto-differentiation of cultured astrocytes

MAP kinase (MAPK) family plays the critical role in signal transduction which convert extracellular stimulation into transcriptional machinery in nucleus. In mammalian cells, MAPKs are divided into two subgroups such as Erk and JNK/p38. In the present study, which MAPK subgroup is involved in cyto-d...

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Published inJapanese Journal of Pharmacology Vol. 79; no. suppl.1; p. 148
Main Authors Sachie Asada, Yoshitoshi Kasuya, Hiroshi Hama, Tatsuhiko Sudo, Katsutoshi Goto
Format Journal Article
LanguageJapanese
Published The Japanese Pharmacological Society 1999
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Summary:MAP kinase (MAPK) family plays the critical role in signal transduction which convert extracellular stimulation into transcriptional machinery in nucleus. In mammalian cells, MAPKs are divided into two subgroups such as Erk and JNK/p38. In the present study, which MAPK subgroup is involved in cyto-differentiation of astrocytes (ACs) is investigated. Dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) and brain extract from adult rat brain cortex equally induced morphological changes, an increase in glutamine synthetase (GS) activity and an overexpression of ETB receptor (ETBR) in ACs, indicating that ETBR is a possible marker in cyto-differentiation of ACs. In gel kinase assay and in vitro kinase assay revealed that DBcAMP activated Erk and p38 but not JNK in ACs in a time-dependent manner. The activation of Erk induced by DBcAMP was transient. On the contrary, the activation of p38 induced by DBcAMP was long lasting. The expression of ETBR induced by DBcAMP in ACs was inhibited by SB202190, an inhibitor of p38, but not by PD98059, MEK1 inhibitor. The role of p138 in astrocytic cyto-differentiation is discussed.
ISSN:0021-5198