Pei Q, Burnet P J, Zetterström T S
Oxford University-SmithKline Beecham Centre for Applied Neuropsychobiology, University Department of Clinical Pharmacology, UK.
Neuroreport. 1998 Feb 16;9(3):391-4. doi: 10.1097/00001756-199802160-00006.
Microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) are involved in the maintenance of mature neuronal morphology, neurite outgrowth and neuronal plasticity. Alteration in MAP expression may underlie neuronal structural changes in response to seizure activity. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether electroconvulsive shock (ECS), an animal model of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in clinical treatment of depression, affected gene expression of MAPs in the rat brain. Using in situ hybridization, we studied the expression of encoding mRNA for MAPs in the brains of rats treated with ECS 5 times over 10 days. The abundance of mRNA encoding microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), a dendritic MAP, was significantly increased (142% compared with controls) in the dentate gyrus 6 and 24 h after the last shock, and had returned to baseline levels within 48 h. These changes were confined to the dentate gyrus no significant changes were observed in CA1 and CA3 of the hippocampus. The increase in MAP2 expression was accompanied by an increase in MAP2 immunoreactivity in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus. The abundance of mRNA encoding for tau, an axon-specific MAP, and MAP1B, an embryonic MAP, was unaffected by ECS. These data demonstrate that ECS specifically altered the mRNA and protein expression of MAP2 but had no effect on tau or MAP1B, and suggest that changes in MAP2 expression may be related to morphological changes in the dentate gyrus, particularly in the dendrites.
微管相关蛋白（MAPs）参与维持成熟神经元的形态、神经突生长和神经元可塑性。MAP表达的改变可能是癫痫活动后神经元结构变化的基础。本研究的目的是调查电惊厥休克（ECS），一种临床治疗抑郁症的电惊厥疗法（ECT）的动物模型，是否会影响大鼠脑中MAPs的基因表达。通过原位杂交，我们研究了在10天内接受5次ECS治疗的大鼠脑中MAPs编码mRNA的表达。编码树突状微管相关蛋白2（MAP2）的mRNA丰度在最后一次休克后6小时和24小时在齿状回中显著增加（与对照组相比增加了142%），并在48小时内恢复到基线水平。这些变化局限于齿状回，在海马体的CA1和CA3中未观察到显著变化。MAP2表达的增加伴随着齿状回分子层中MAP2免疫反应性的增加。编码轴突特异性微管相关蛋白tau和胚胎微管相关蛋白MAP1B的mRNA丰度不受ECS影响。这些数据表明，ECS特异性地改变了MAP2的mRNA和蛋白质表达，但对tau或MAP1B没有影响，并表明MAP2表达的变化可能与齿状回的形态变化有关，特别是在树突中。
