Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 5, 2026
Modeling Neuronal Death and Degeneration in Mouse Primary Cerebellar Granule Neurons
Published on: November 6, 2017
Tumor necrosis factor-alpha induces cFOS and strongly potentiates glutamate-mediated cell death in the rat spinal
G E Hermann1, R C Rogers, J C Bresnahan
1Laboratory of Autonomic Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience, The Ohio State University Medical Center, 333 W. 10th Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA. hermann.4@osu.edu
Abstract:
Excitotoxic cell death due to glutamate release is important in the secondary injury following CNS trauma or ischemia. Proinflammatory cytokines also play a role. Both glutamate and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF(alpha)) are released immediately after spinal cord injury. Neurophysiological studies show that TNF(alpha) can potentiate the effects of glutamatergic afferent input to produce hyperactivation of brain-stem sensory neurons. Therefore, we hypothesized that TNF(alpha) might act cooperatively with glutamate to affect cell death in the spinal cord as well. Nanoinjections of either TNF(alpha) (60 pg) or kainate (KA; 32 ng) alone into the thoracic gray resulted in almost no tissue damage or cell death 90 min after injection. However, the combination of TNF(alpha) plus KA at these same doses produced a large area of tissue necrosis and neuronal cell death, an effect which was blocked by the AMPA receptor antagonist CNQX (17 ng). These results suggest that secondary injury may involve potentiation of AMPA receptor-mediated excitatory cell death by TNF(alpha).
