|
ERYTHROPOIETIN RECEPTOR AND SIGNALING IN NEURAL STEM CELLS |
|
|
|
|
Saturday, 24 December 2005 |
Zhao-Xia Qu
Department of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, W. M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience, USA
Recent studies indicate that Erythropoietin (EPO), a cytokine that regulates hematopoiesis, improves recovery after spinal cord injury and other types of central nervous system injury in animals. The mechanisms by which EPO stimulates tissue repair are not well understood.
We show here that EPO receptor is expressed in neural stem cells isolated from various sources, including embryonic rat cerebral cortex, post-natal rat olfactory bulb and post-natal rat sub-ventricular zone. EPO receptor is also expressed in a neonatal rat blood-derived cell line, which exhibits some features of neural stem cells. Western blot analysis indicated that EPO activates MAPK and AKT pathways in these cells. Quantitative real time PCR analysis revealed that EPO increases the expression of Bcl-w, BclX-short, and IkBa? and decreases the expression of IL-1a, IL-1b, and TNFa in these cells.
Our data suggest that EPO may promote neural stem cell survival, proliferation, and/or differentiation, which could be one important mechanism of EPO function in the central nervous system.
|
|
Last Updated ( Saturday, 24 December 2005 )
|
