Increased Mdm2 expression in rat brain after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion

The negative regulator of p53 transactivation, Mdm2, increased in the ischemic territory after 90 minutes of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion in spontaneously hypertensive rats compared to sham controls. Increased mdm2 mRNA was detected by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction by 6 hours of reperfusion in the ipsilateral hemisphere. In situ hybridization histochemistry was used to localize increases in mdm2 mRNA which occurred in neurons of ischemic cortex and dorsolateral striatum. The number of labeled neurons increased by approximately 20-fold and the cells displayed five-fold increases of mdm2 mRNA in the cortex. Immunohistochemical staining for Mdm2 revealed that its mRNA was efficiently translated in the ischemic cortex, but not striatum, by 8 to 24 hours of reperfusion. Western blotting confirmed 30- to 40-fold increases in the full-length protein of 90 kd at these time points without evidence of alternative splicing. Because Mdm2 is a negative regulator of the apoptosis promoting activity of p53, increased expression of Mdm2 may be a component of a repair response in injured neurons, and supports Mdm2 being an indicator of DNA damage in the brain early after an ischemic insult in a similar way to Gadd45.