Reduced nerve growth factor levels in stress-related brain regions of folate-deficient mice
Autor: | Matthias Endres, Heide Hörtnagl, Golo Kronenberg, H. Hörster, Karen Gertz, S. Eckart, Rainer Hellweg |
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Rok vydání: | 2013 |
Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Normal diet Genotype Hippocampus Hippocampal formation Folic Acid Deficiency Amygdala Mice Internal medicine Nerve Growth Factor medicine Dementia Animals Mice Knockout biology business.industry General Neuroscience Neurodegeneration medicine.disease Frontal Lobe Nerve growth factor Endocrinology medicine.anatomical_structure nervous system biology.protein business Stress Psychological Neurotrophin |
Zdroj: | Neuroscience. 245 |
ISSN: | 1873-7544 |
Popis: | Folate deficiency has been linked to neurodegenerative and stress-related diseases such as stroke, dementia and depression. The role of the neurotrophins nerve growth factor (NGF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) in stress-related disorders and neurodegeneration has garnered increasing attention in recent years. Uracil misincorporation is involved in the neuropsychiatric dysfunction induced by experimental folate deprivation. However, the effects of folate deficiency on the expression of NGF and NT-3 in brain tissue have not yet been investigated. In a 2×2 design, aged mice lacking uracil-DNA N-glycosylase (Ung(-/-)) versus wild-type (Ung(+/+)) controls were subjected to a folate-deficient diet versus a regular diet for three months. Independent of genotype, folate deficiency led to decreased NGF protein levels in the frontal cortex and amygdala. In the hippocampus, NGF levels were increased in UNG(-/-) mice on the normal diet, but not under folate deficiency, while in UNG(+/+) mice, folate deprivation did not affect hippocampal NGF content. NT-3 protein concentrations were neither affected by genotype nor by folate deficiency. Altogether, the results of our study show that folate deficiency affects NGF levels in the frontal cortex, amygdala and hippocampus. The decrease in NGF content in the hippocampus in response to folate deficiency in Ung(-/-) mice may contribute to their phenotype of enhanced anxiety and despair-like behavior as well as to selective hippocampal neurodegeneration. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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