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Assessment of Hippocampal Dendritic Complexity in Aged Mice Using the Golgi-Cox Method
Published on: June 22, 2017
A Golgi fragmentation pathway in neurodegeneration
Saya Nakagomi1, Mark J Barsoum, Ella Bossy-Wetzel
1Center for Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, 10901 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Neurobiology of Disease
|October 30, 2007
Summary
Golgi fragmentation precedes neuronal cell death in neurodegenerative diseases. Intervening in this process can delay or prevent cell death, implicating the Golgi apparatus in stress signaling.
Area of Science:
- Cell Biology
- Neuroscience
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- The Golgi apparatus is crucial for protein processing but fragments during apoptosis in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
- Organelle dysfunction is implicated in cell death pathways.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of Golgi fragmentation in neuronal cell death signal transduction.
- To determine if Golgi fragmentation is a common downstream effector in cell death pathways.
Main Methods:
- Inducing neuronal cell death using excitotoxins, oxidative stress, and ER stress.
- Pharmacological inhibition and genetic manipulation (Grasp65 overexpression) of Golgi fragmentation.
- Assessing the impact of mitochondrial and ER stress pathway inhibition on Golgi fragmentation.
Main Results:
- Golgi fragmentation and dispersal were observed to precede neuronal cell death induced by various stressors.
- Inhibiting Golgi fragmentation via Grasp65 manipulation decreased or delayed neuronal death.
- Inhibition of mitochondrial or ER cell death pathways reduced Golgi fragmentation, suggesting crosstalk.
Conclusions:
- Golgi fragmentation is an early event in neuronal cell death pathways.
- The Golgi apparatus acts as a sensor of cellular stress signals.
- The Golgi may be a common downstream effector in diverse cell death pathways, highlighting inter-organelle communication.
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