Ko Pauline, Burkert Rachel, McGrath John, Eyles Darryl
School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Qld 4072, Brisbane, Australia.
Brain Res Dev Brain Res. 2004 Oct 15;153(1):61-8. doi: 10.1016/j.devbrainres.2004.07.013.
Recently, it has been shown that the prenatal vitamin D(3) depletion is associated with altered brain development. Given the antiproliferative and pro-apoptotic properties of vitamin D(3) in various cell types, we examined the effects of maternal vitamin D(3) deprivation on cell proliferation and apoptosis within the rat cortex at several developmental stages. Our results confirm that vitamin D(3) regulates these processes in the developing brain at both cellular and molecular levels. Compared to control animals, the embryos and pups from vitamin D(3) depleted mothers had significantly less apoptotic cells, this finding being most pronounced at birth. Additionally, there were significantly more mitotic cells but this was not associated with any particular developmental period. Targeted gene arrays specific for apoptosis and cell cycle genes confirmed a pattern of transcription deregulation in the deplete group consistent with the known properties of vitamin D(3). While most current vitamin D(3) research is focussed on the pro-apoptotic and prodifferentiating properties of vitamin D(3) as adjuncts for the treatment of cancers, our findings highlight the important role that this hormone plays in normal development via these same properties specifically in the brain.
最近的研究表明，产前维生素D(3)缺乏与大脑发育改变有关。鉴于维生素D(3)在多种细胞类型中具有抗增殖和促凋亡特性，我们研究了母体维生素D(3)缺乏对大鼠皮质在几个发育阶段的细胞增殖和凋亡的影响。我们的结果证实，维生素D(3)在细胞和分子水平上调节发育中大脑的这些过程。与对照动物相比，维生素D(3)缺乏的母亲所生的胚胎和幼崽的凋亡细胞明显减少，这一发现在出生时最为明显。此外，有丝分裂细胞明显更多，但这与任何特定的发育时期无关。针对凋亡和细胞周期基因的靶向基因阵列证实，缺乏组的转录失调模式与维生素D(3)的已知特性一致。虽然目前大多数维生素D(3)的研究集中在其作为癌症治疗辅助手段的促凋亡和促分化特性上，但我们的研究结果强调了这种激素通过这些相同特性在正常发育中，特别是在大脑中所起的重要作用。
