Increased proliferation and gliogenesis of cultured rat neural progenitor cells by lipopolysaccharide-stimulated astrocytes.

Neural progenitor cells (NPC) are self-renewing multipotent cells that generate neurons and glial cells in the brain. NPCs generate neurons and glia not only during development but also after neural injury. Recent studies have shown that endogenous NPCs are activated after brain injury and migrate toward damaged areas where astrocyte activation occurs. Considering the massive proliferation of astrocytes as well as the production of several kinds of cytoactive molecules after brain injury, such as NO, growth factors and cytokines, it is tempting to think that cytoactive molecules released by activated glial cells regulate neural progenitor differentiation and proliferation through inflammatory mediators. To test this hypothesis, we stimulated rat primary astrocytes with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to induce the activation of astrocytes. After addition of the conditioned media from LPS-stimulated astrocytes to NPC culture, proliferation was examined by MTT assay and bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation. The differentiation of NPC into neurons and astrocytes was examined by Western blot, ELISA and immunocytochemical staining with cell-type-specific markers. Conditioned media from LPS-stimulated astrocytes increased NPC proliferation as well as gliogenesis as compared with control conditioned media from astrocytes without LPS stimulation. In contrast, neurogenesis was decreased by LPS-conditioned media. To investigate the molecular mechanism mediating glial differentiation and proliferation of NPC by reactive astrocytes, we added inhibitors of the Erk and JNK pathways during LPS stimulation. These inhibitors - except for a p38 inhibitor - decreased NPC proliferation and glial differentiation. These results suggest that LPS stimulated astrocytes generate factors regulating NPC proliferation and gliogenesis via the Erk and JNK pathways.