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Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Bilaminar Co-culture of Primary Rat Cortical Neurons and Glia
Published on: November 12, 2011
Chemokine CX3CL1 protects rat hippocampal neurons against glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity
Cristina Limatola1, Clotilde Lauro, Myriam Catalano
1Istituto Pasteur-Fondazione Cenci Bolognetti and Dipartimento di Fisiologia Umana e Farmacologia, Centro di Eccellenza BEMM, Università di Roma La Sapienza, P.le A. Moro 5, I00185 Rome, Italy. cristina.limatola@uniroma1.it
Abstract:
Excitotoxicity is a cell death caused by excessive exposure to glutamate (Glu), contributing to neuronal degeneration in many acute and chronic CNS diseases. We explored the role of fractalkine/CX3CL1 on survival of hippocampal neurons exposed to excitotoxic doses of Glu. We found that: CX3CL1 reduces excitotoxicity when co-applied with Glu, through the activation of the ERK1/2 and PI3K/Akt pathways, or administered up to 8 h after Glu insult; CX3CL1 reduces the Glu-activated whole-cell current through mechanisms dependent on intracellular Ca2+; CX3CL1 is released from hippocampal cells after excitotoxic insult, likely providing an endogenous protective mechanism against excitotoxic cell death.

