Li Zheng, Zheng Jing, Zhang Xiao-Feng
Department of Toxicology, Public Health School, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, People's Republic of China.
Department of Public Health Monitoring, Heilongjiang Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Harbin, People's Republic of China.
Dose Response. 2018 Apr 15;16(2):1559325818761681. doi: 10.1177/1559325818761681. eCollection 2018 Apr-Jun.
Paraquat (PQ) exposure is known as a risk factor for developing neurodegenerative diseases. Astrocytes are implicated and affected in neurodegenerative diseases and brain injuries, so it is suspected that PQ may impose detrimental effects on astrocytes function. Here, we present a study of the effects of PQ on synaptic function of astrocytes. Human astrocytes (HA1800) were separately treated with PQ at 200, 400, and 800 µmol/L for 12, 24, and 48 hours, respectively. The concentrations of membrane cholesterol, intracellular glutamate, and adenosine triphosphate (ATP) were assessed by measuring changes with Kits after PQ treatment. Expression levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and apolipoprotein E (ApoE) were detected using Western blot method. The results indicated that astrocytes were highly susceptible to PQ showing astrogliosis characterized by enhanced GFAP expression ( < .05). The decreased cholesterol level and ApoE expression were observed in PQ-treated astrocytes and so were the decreased levels of glutamates and ATP in PQ-treated astrocytes. These results suggested that PQ exerted the detrimental effects on synaptic function of astrocytes, which may be involved in the progressive process of neurodegenerative disorders.
百草枯（PQ）暴露是引发神经退行性疾病的一个风险因素。星形胶质细胞与神经退行性疾病和脑损伤有关且会受到影响，因此人们怀疑PQ可能会对星形胶质细胞的功能产生有害影响。在此，我们展示了一项关于PQ对星形胶质细胞突触功能影响的研究。分别用200、400和800微摩尔/升的PQ处理人星形胶质细胞（HA1800）12、24和48小时。PQ处理后，通过试剂盒测量变化来评估膜胆固醇、细胞内谷氨酸和三磷酸腺苷（ATP）的浓度。使用蛋白质印迹法检测胶质纤维酸性蛋白（GFAP）和载脂蛋白E（ApoE）的表达水平。结果表明，星形胶质细胞对PQ高度敏感，表现为以GFAP表达增强为特征的星形胶质细胞增生（P<0.05）。在经PQ处理的星形胶质细胞中观察到胆固醇水平和ApoE表达降低，经PQ处理的星形胶质细胞中谷氨酸和ATP水平也降低。这些结果表明，PQ对星形胶质细胞的突触功能产生了有害影响，这可能与神经退行性疾病的进展过程有关。
