Early immunohistochemical changes of microtubule based motor proteins in gerbil hippocampus after transient ischemia

Changes of immunoreactivities for microtubule based motor proteins, kinesin and cytoplasmic dynein, and non-motor protein, microtubule associated protein (MAP) 2 were investigated in gerbil hippocampus after transient ischemia. The immunoreactivities for kinesin showed a progressive decrease in hippocampal CA1 cells from 8 h after transient 5 or 15 min of ischemia that is lethal to the CA1 cells, while it showed no change after 2 min of ischemia that is non-lethal to the cells. The immunoreactivities for cytoplasmic dynein showed a decrease from 3 or 1 h of reperfusion in the CA1 cells after 5 or 15 min of ischemia, respectively. In contrast, the immunoreactivity for MAP2 remained normal until 2 days in the CA1 cells after 5 min of ischemia. These results showed an early changes of microtubule based motor proteins, such as kinesin and cytoplasmic dynein in vulnerable CA1 neurons. These changes may affect the mitochondrial shuttle system between neuronal cell body and the peripheries such as axon terminal and dendrites. This early disturbance may cause a failure to obtain newly synthesized nuclear encoded mitochondrial protein, and result in mitochondrial dysfunctions and the subsequent cell death.