The Journal of Neuroscience, August 1, 2002, 22(15):6537-6548
Overexpression of HGF Retards Disease Progression and Prolongs
Life Span in a Transgenic Mouse Model of ALS
Woong
Sun*,
Hiroshi
Funakoshi*, and
Toshikazu
Nakamura
Division of Molecular Regenerative Medicine, Course of Advanced
Medicine, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, B-7, Osaka
565-0871, Japan
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative
disease characterized by a progressive loss of motoneurons and
degeneration of motor axons. We show that overexpression of hepatocyte
growth factor (HGF) in the nervous system attenuates motoneuron death
and axonal degeneration and prolongs the life span of transgenic mice
overexpressing mutated Cu2+/Zn2+
superoxide dismutase 1. HGF prevented induction of caspase-1 and
inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) in motoneurons and retained the
levels of the glial-specific glutamate transporter (excitatory amino
acid transporter 2/glutamate transporter 1) in reactive
astrocytes. We propose that HGF may be the first example of an
endogenous growth factor that can alleviate the symptoms of ALS by
direct neurotrophic activities on motoneurons and indirect activities
on glial cells, presumably favoring a reduction in glutamatergic neurotoxicity.
Key words:
HGF; c-Met; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; caspase-1; EAAT2; motoneuron
*
W.S. and H.F. contributed equally to this work.