分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 >> 细胞生物学 提交时间: 2016-05-12
摘要: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is regarded as one of the serious risk factors for age-related cognitive impairment; however, a causal link between these two diseases has so far not been established. It was recently discovered that, apart from high D-glucose levels, T2DM patients also display abnormally high concentrations of uric D-ribose. Here, we show for the first time that the administration of D-ribose, the most active glycator among monosaccharides, produces high levels of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) and, importantly, triggers hyperphosphorylation of Tau in the brain of C57BL/6 mouse and neuroblastoma N2a cells. However, the administration of D-glucose showed no significant changes in Tau phosphorylation under the same experimental conditions. Crucially, suppression of AGE formation using an AGEs inhibitor (aminoguanidine) effectively prevents hyperphosphorylation of Tau protein. Further study shows AGEs resulted from ribosylation activate calcium-/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase type II (CaMKII), a key kinase responsible for Tau hyperphosphorylation. These data suggest that there is indeed a mechanistic link between ribosylation and Tau hyperphosphorylation. Targeting ribosylation by inhibiting AGE formation may be a promising therapeutic strategy to prevent Alzheimer's disease-like Tau hyperphosphorylation and diabetic encephalopathies.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 >> 肿瘤学 提交时间: 2016-05-11
摘要: In addition to D-Glucose, D-Ribose is also abnormally elevated in the urine of type 2 diabetic patients, establishing a positive correlation between the concentration of uric D-Ribose and the severity of diabetes. Intraperitoneal injection of D-Ribose causes memory loss and brain inflammation in mice. To simulate a chronic progression of age-related cognitive impairment, we orally administered D-Ribose by gavage at both a low and high dose to 8 week-old male C57BL/6J mice daily for a total of 6 months, followed by behavioral, histological and biochemical analysis. We found that long-term oral administration of D-Ribose impairs spatial learning and memory, accompanied by anxiety-like behavior. Tau was hyperphosphorylated at AT8, S396, S214 and T181 in the brain. A beta-like deposition was also found in the hippocampus for the high dose group. D-Glucose-gavaged mice did not show significant memory loss and anxiety-like behavior under the same experimental conditions. These results demonstrate that a long-term oral administration of D-Ribose not only induces memory loss with anxiety-like behavior, but also elevates A beta-like deposition and Tau hyperphosphorylation, presenting D-Ribose-gavaged mouse as a model for agerelated cognitive impairment and diabetic encephalopathy.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-11
摘要: Hippocampus-related topographic amnesia is the most common symptom of memory disorders in Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Recent studies have revealed that experience-mediated DNA methylation, which is regulated by enzymes with DNA methyltransferase (DNMT) activity, is required for the formation of recent memory as well as the maintenance of remote memory. Notably, overexpression of DNMT3a in the hippocampus can reverse spatial memory deficits in aged mice. However, a decline in global DNA methylation was found in the autopsied hippocampi of patients with AD. Exactly, what endogenous factors that affect DNA methylation still remain to be elucidated. Here, we report a marked increase in endogenous formaldehyde levels is associated with a decline in global DNA methylation in the autopsied hippocampus from AD patients. In vitro and in vivo results show that formaldehyde in excess of normal physiological levels reduced global DNA methylation by interfering DNMTs. Interestingly, intrahippocampal injection of excess formaldehyde before spatial learning in healthy adult rats can mimic the learning difficulty of early stage of AD. Moreover, injection of excess formaldehyde after spatial learning can mimic the loss of remote spatial memory observed in late stage of AD. These findings suggest that aging-associated formaldehyde contributes to topographic amnesia in AD patients. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 >> 衰老生物学 提交时间: 2016-05-11
摘要: Background: Hedgehog (Hh) signals are instrumental to the dorsoventral patterning of the vertebrate eye, promoting optic stalk and ventral retinal fates and repressing dorsal retinal identity. There has been limited analysis, however, of the critical window during which Hh molecules control eye polarity and of the temporal changes in the responsiveness of eye cells to these signals. Results: In this study, we used pharmacological and molecular tools to perform stage-specific manipulations of Hh signalling in the developing Xenopus eye. In gain-of-function experiments, most of the eye was sensitive to ventralization when the Hh pathway was activated starting from gastrula/neurula stages. During optic vesicle stages, the dorsal eye became resistant to Hh-dependent ventralization, but this pathway could partially upregulate optic stalk markers within the retina. In loss-of-function assays, inhibition of Hh signalling starting from neurula stages caused expansion of the dorsal retina at the expense of the ventral retina and the optic stalk, while the effects of Hh inhibition during optic vesicle stages were limited to the reduction of optic stalk size. Conclusions: Our results suggest the existence of two competence windows during which the Hh pathway differentially controls patterning of the eye region. In the first window, between the neural plate and the optic vesicle stages, Hh signalling exerts a global influence on eye dorsoventral polarity, contributing to the specification of optic stalk, ventral retina and dorsal retinal domains. In the second window, between optic vesicle and optic cup stages, this pathway plays a more limited role in the maintenance of the optic stalk domain. We speculate that this temporal regulation is important to coordinate dorsoventral patterning with morphogenesis and differentiation processes during eye development.
分类: 生物学 >> 生物物理学 提交时间: 2016-05-05
摘要: Formaldehyde exposure is toxic to the brains of mammals, but the mechanism remains unclear. We investigated the effects of inhaled formaldehyde on anxiety, depression, cognitive capacity and central levels of glucocorticoid receptor and tyrosine hydroxylase in mice. After exposure to 0, 1 or 2 ppm gaseous formaldehyde for one week, we measured anxiety-like behavior using open field and elevated plus-maze tests, depression-like behavior using a forced swimming test, learning and memory using novel object recognition tests, levels of glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus and tyrosine hydroxylase in the Arc, MPOA, ZI and VTA using immuhistochemistry. We found that inhalation of 1 ppm formaldehyde reduced levels of anxiety-like behavior. Inhalation of 2 ppm formaldehyde reduced body weight, but increased levels of depression-like behavior, impaired novel object recognition, and lowered the numbers of glucocorticoid receptor immonureactive neurons in the hippocampus and tyrosine hydroxylase immonureactive neurons in the ventral tegmental area and the zona incerta, medial preoptic area. Different concentrations of gaseous formaldehyde result in different effects on anxiety, depression-like behavior and cognition ability which may be associated with alterations in hippocampal glucocorticoid receptors and brain tyrosine hydroxylase levels. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.