Effects of estrogen treatment on glutamate uptake in cultured human astrocytes derived from cortex of Alzheimer's disease patients

Estrogen is thought to play a protective role against neurodegeneration through a variety of mechanisms including the activation of growth factors, the control of synaptic plasticity, and the reduction of response to various insults, such as iron and glutamate. Increasing evidence indicates an incre...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neurochemistry 2002-03, Vol.80 (5), p.807-814
Main Authors: Liang, Zhe, Valla, Jon, Sefidvash‐Hockley, Sepideh, Rogers, Joseph, Li, Rena
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alzheimer Disease - metabolism
Alzheimer's disease, astrocytes, estrogen, estro‐ gen receptors, glutamate transporters, glutamate uptake
Amino Acid Transport System X-AG - metabolism
Astrocytes - cytology
Astrocytes - drug effects
Astrocytes - metabolism
Biological and medical sciences
Blotting, Western
Cells, Cultured
Cerebral Cortex - cytology
Cerebral Cortex - drug effects
Cerebral Cortex - metabolism
Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases
Estradiol - pharmacology
Estrogens - pharmacology
Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 2 - metabolism
Glutamic Acid - pharmacokinetics
Humans
Immunohistochemistry
Medical sciences
Neurology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Estrogen is thought to play a protective role against neurodegeneration through a variety of mechanisms including the activation of growth factors, the control of synaptic plasticity, and the reduction of response to various insults, such as iron and glutamate. Increasing evidence indicates an increased level of extracellular glutamate and a down‐regulation of glutamate transporters in Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we show that glutamate uptake in astrocytes derived from Alzheimer's patients is significantly lower than that from non‐demented controls. Estrogen treatment increases glutamate uptake in a dose‐dependent pattern. Two glutamate transporters, GLT‐1 and GLAST, are expressed in the astrocytes. Up‐regulation of the glutamate transporters is induced by estrogen treatment in AD astrocytes only. Our data suggest that the action of estrogen on glutamate uptake by astrocytes might contribute to its potential neuroprotective role in AD.
ISSN:0022-3042
1471-4159
DOI:10.1046/j.0022-3042.2002.00779.x