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Preparation of Acute Hippocampal Slices from Rats and Transgenic Mice for the Study of Synaptic Alterations during Aging and Amyloid Pathology
Published on: March 23, 2011
[Effect of chronic lead exposure on expression of autophagy-associated proteins in rat hippocampus]
Wei-feng Ye1, Yun Tian, Ji-yun Huang
1Department of Pharmacy, The Affiliated Children's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou 310003, China.
Objective:
To investigate the effects of chronic lead exposure on expression of autophagy-associated proteins in rat hippocampus.
Methods:
SD rats were randomly divided into three groups: control group was given distilled water, lead-exposed groups were given 0.5 g/L (low-dose) or 2.0 g/L(high-dose) lead acetate solution in drinking water. The rat pups started to drink the lead content water until 60 d maturity. The lead contents in blood and brain samples were analyzed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The expressions of Beclin 1, LC3, LAMP2 and cathepsin B proteins were detected by Western blot and immunohistochemistry.
Results:
Compared with control group, the contents of lead were significantly higher in blood and hippocampus samples in chronic lead-exposed rats (P<0.01). Western blot showed that the expression of Beclin 1 and LC3-II/LC3-I increased significantly in high dose lead-exposed group compared with control group (P<0.05 or P<0.001). The confocal laser immunostaining results demonstrated that increased immunofluorescence staining of cathepsin B in hippocampal neurons compared with control animals.
Conclusion:
The disturbance of autophagy-lysosome signaling molecules might be partially contribute to neurotoxicity of chronic lead exposure.
