Sakurai Takanobu, Miki Takanori, Li Hong Peng, Miyatake Akira, Satriotomo Irawan, Takeuchi Yoshiki
Molecular Biology Laboratory, Medical Research Laboratories, Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., 403 Yoshino-cho 1-chome, Saitama-shi, Saitama, 330-8530, Japan.
Brain Res. 2003 Jan 3;959(1):160-4. doi: 10.1016/s0006-8993(02)03611-9.
Morphological changes of the hippocampus were investigated in mice exhibiting signs of intoxication following short-term exposure to 6% ethanol. These alterations were examined by a double immunofluorescent study using antibodies to taurine and anti-glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) antibody. Antibody-labeled taurine was localized mainly in the astrocytes and endothelial cells of control mice. Ethanol administration resulted in a significant increase in the accumulation of taurine and GFAP immunoreactivity (IR) in the stratum lacunosum-moleculare (sl-m) of the hippocampus. Specifically, the cell bodies of taurine-positive astrocytes were hypertrophied, their processes were elongated in the pericapillary region, and some colocalized with GFAP-IR cells. Furthermore, quantitative analysis revealed that the merged area in ethanol-treated mice was twice that (71.6% vs. 35.8%) of control mice. Since taurine is involved in various neuroprotective functions, the present observations suggest that the expression of taurine IR in reactive astrocytes after ethanol exposure might play an important role in neuroprotective processes.
在短期暴露于6%乙醇后出现中毒迹象的小鼠中，研究了海马体的形态学变化。通过使用抗牛磺酸抗体和抗胶质纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）抗体的双重免疫荧光研究来检查这些改变。抗体标记的牛磺酸主要定位于对照小鼠的星形胶质细胞和内皮细胞中。给予乙醇导致海马体分子层（sl-m）中牛磺酸积累和GFAP免疫反应性（IR）显著增加。具体而言，牛磺酸阳性星形胶质细胞的细胞体肥大，其突起在毛细血管周围区域伸长，并且一些与GFAP-IR细胞共定位。此外，定量分析显示，乙醇处理小鼠的合并面积是对照小鼠的两倍（71.6%对35.8%）。由于牛磺酸参与多种神经保护功能，目前的观察结果表明，乙醇暴露后反应性星形胶质细胞中牛磺酸IR的表达可能在神经保护过程中起重要作用。
