Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Synapse. 2022 Mar;76(3-4):e22225. doi: 10.1002/syn.22225. Epub 2022 Feb 18.
Intercellular communication via gap junctions (GJs) has a wide variety of complex and essential functions in the CNS. In the present developmental study, we aimed to quantify the number of astrocytic GJs protein connexin 30 (Cx30) of genetic model of absence epilepsy rats from Strasbourg (GAERS) at postnatal P10, P30, and P60 days in the epileptic focal areas involved in the cortico-thalamic circuit. We compared the results with Wistar rats using immunohistochemistry and western blotting. The number of Cx30 immunopositive astrocytes per unit area were quantified for the somatosensory cortex (SSCx), ventrobasal (VB), and lateral geniculate (LGN) thalamic nuclei of the two strains and Cx30 western blot was applied to the tissue samples from the same regions. Both immunohistochemical and western blot results revealed the presence of Cx30 in all regions studied at P10 in both Wistar and GAERS animals. The SSCx, VB, and LGN of Wistar animals showed progressive increase in the number of Cx30 immunopositive labeled astrocytes from P10 to P30 and reached a peak at P30; then a significant decline was observed from P30 to P60 for the SSCx and VB. However, in GAERS Cx30 immunopositive labeled astrocytes showed a progressive increase from P10 to P60 for all brain regions studied. The immunohistochemical data highly corresponded with western blotting results. We conclude that the developmental disproportional expression of Cx30 in the epileptic focal areas in GAERS may be related to the onset of absence seizures or may be related to the neurogenesis of absence epilepsy.
细胞间通过缝隙连接（GJ）的通讯在中枢神经系统中具有广泛而复杂的重要功能。在本研究中，我们旨在量化斯德哥尔摩缺失癫痫大鼠（GAERS）模型在出生后 P10、P30 和 P60 天的与皮质-丘脑回路相关的癫痫灶中星形胶质细胞缝隙连接蛋白 30（Cx30）的数量。我们使用免疫组织化学和蛋白质印迹法将结果与 Wistar 大鼠进行了比较。我们对两种品系的体感皮层（SSCx）、腹侧基底核（VB）和外侧膝状体（LGN）丘脑核的单位面积 Cx30 免疫阳性星形胶质细胞数量进行了量化，并对来自相同区域的组织样本进行了 Cx30 蛋白质印迹分析。免疫组织化学和蛋白质印迹结果均显示，在 P10 时，两种品系的所有研究区域均存在 Cx30。Wistar 动物的 SSCx、VB 和 LGN 的 Cx30 免疫阳性标记星形胶质细胞数量从 P10 到 P30 逐渐增加，并在 P30 时达到峰值；然后，从 P30 到 P60，SSCx 和 VB 的数量显著下降。然而，GAERS 的 Cx30 免疫阳性标记星形胶质细胞在所有研究的脑区从 P10 到 P60 呈逐渐增加的趋势。免疫组织化学数据与蛋白质印迹结果高度一致。我们得出结论，GAERS 癫痫灶中 Cx30 的发育不成比例表达可能与失神发作的发作有关，也可能与失神性癫痫的神经发生有关。
