Nanomolar concentration of alpha-synuclein enhances dopaminergic neuronal survival via Akt pathway

• Published in: Neural regeneration research 2013-12, Vol.8 (35), p.3269-3274
• Main Authors: Kim, Ji-Young, Jeon, Beom Seok, Kim, Han-Joon, Ahn, Tae-Beom
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Akt; Analysis; Care and treatment; Cell proliferation; Immunization; Microscope and microscopy; Parkinson's disease; Research and Report : Neurodegenerative Disease and Neural Regeneration; SH-SY5Y; α-突触核蛋白; 多巴胺能神经元; 存活力; 摩尔浓度; 细胞活力; 通路
• ISSN: 1673-5374; 1876-7958
• DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1673-5374.2013.35.001

Although alpha-synuclein is generally thought to have a pathological role in Parkinson＇s disease, accumulative evidence exists that alpha-synuclein has a neuroprotective effect. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of extracellular alpha-synuclein on dopaminergic cell survival. We assessed cell viability using the 3-（4,5-dimethyt-thiazol-2-yt）-2,5-diphenyltertazolium bromide （MTT） assay both in undifferentiated SH-SY5Y （SHSY） cells and neuronally-differentiated SH-SY5Y （ndSHSY） cells after 24 hour treatment with monomeric alpha-synuclein at various concentrations （0 [control], 50, 100 nmol/L, 1 IJmol/L）. To determine whether cell viability assessed by MTT assay was affected by cell proliferation, 5-bromo-2＇-deoxyuridine （BrdU） incorporation assay was per- formed. Level of both Akt and phosphorylated Akt was measured using western blot method in ndSHSY cells with or without 24 hour alpha-synuclein treatment. Cell viability was increased in ndSHSY cells at the nanomolar concentration of alpha-synuclein, but not in SHSY cells. Proportion of BrdU-positive ndSHSY cells was decreased in alpha-synuclein-treated group compared with control group. Level of phosphorylated Akt in alpha-synuclein-treated group was higher compared with the control group. Our study shows that extracellular alpha-synuclein at nanomolar concentra- tion benefits dopaminergic cell survival via Akt pathway.