Choi Jae-Sun, Pham Thao Thi Hien, Jang Yoon-Jin, Bui Bao Chi, Lee Bong-Hee, Joo Kyeong-Min, Cha Choong-Ik, Lee Kyung-Hoon
Department of Anatomy, Center for Molecular Medicine, Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea.
J Korean Med Sci. 2006 Jun;21(3):518-26. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2006.21.3.518.
Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) is known to be involved in the stress response and in some degenerative brain disorders. In addition, CRF has a role as a neuromodulator in adult cerebellar circuits. Data from developmental studies suggest a putative role for CRF as a trophic factor during cerebellar development. In this study, we investigated the trophic role for CRF family of peptides by culturing cerebellar neurons in the presence of CRF, urocortin or urocortin II. Primary cell cultures of cerebella from embryonic day 18 mice were established, and cells were treated for either 1, 5 or 9 days with Basal Medium Eagles complete medium alone or complete medium with 1 microM CRF, urocortin, or urocortin II. The number of GABA-positive neurons in each treatment condition was counted at each culture age for monitoring the changes in neuronal survival. Treatment with 1 microM CRF or 1 microM urocortin increased the survival of GABAergic neurons at 6 days in vitro and 10 days in vitro, and this survival promoting effect was abolished by treatment with astressin in the presence of those peptides. Based on these data, we suggest that CRF or urocortin has a trophic role promoting the survival of cerebellar GABAergic neurons in cultures.
促肾上腺皮质激素释放因子（CRF）已知参与应激反应及某些退行性脑部疾病。此外，CRF在成体小脑回路中作为一种神经调质发挥作用。发育研究数据表明，CRF在小脑发育过程中可能作为一种营养因子发挥作用。在本研究中，我们通过在CRF、尿皮质素或尿皮质素II存在的情况下培养小脑神经元，研究了CRF肽家族的营养作用。建立了来自胚胎第18天小鼠小脑的原代细胞培养物，细胞分别用基础培养基鹰氏完全培养基单独处理，或用含1微摩尔CRF、尿皮质素或尿皮质素II的完全培养基处理1天、5天或9天。在每个培养年龄对每种处理条件下的GABA阳性神经元数量进行计数，以监测神经元存活的变化。用1微摩尔CRF或1微摩尔尿皮质素处理可增加体外培养6天和10天时GABA能神经元的存活率，且在这些肽存在的情况下，阿斯特辛处理可消除这种存活促进作用。基于这些数据，我们认为CRF或尿皮质素具有促进培养中小脑GABA能神经元存活的营养作用。
