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The Journal of Neuroscience, April 15, 2003, 23(8):3234
Cell Type-Specific Roles for Tissue Plasminogen Activator
Released by Neurons or Microglia after Excitotoxic Injury
Chia-Jen
Siao1,
Susana
R.
Fernandez2, and
Stella E.
Tsirka1, 2
1 Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Program in
Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, and 2 Program in
Molecular and Cellular Biology, University Medical Center at Stony
Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794-8651
Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) plays important roles in the
brain after excitotoxic injury. It is released by both neurons and
microglia and mediates neuronal death and microglial activation. Mice
lacking tPA are resistant to excitotoxicity and show very limited
microglial activation. Activated microglia are neurotoxic in culture,
but this phenomenon is not well documented in vivo. To
further understand the sequence of events through which tPA mediates
microglial activation and neurodegeneration, we have generated mice
that exhibit restricted expression of tPA through introduction of tPA
transgenes under the control of neuronal- or microglial-specific
promoters into tPA-deficient mice. Neither strain of transgenic mice
shows abnormal brain morphology or inflammation in the absence of
injury, and unilateral intrahippocampal kainate injections into the
transgenic mice induced excitotoxicity and microglial activation
reminiscent of wild-type mice. However, there are differences in the
kinetics of the resulting pathology. The neuronal tPA-expressing mice
exhibit accelerated microglial activation compared with wild-type or
microglial tPA-expressing mice. However, microglial tPA-expressing mice
exhibit greater neurodegeneration. These data suggest a model in which
tPA plays different roles after kainate injection depending on whether
it is released by neurons or microglia. We propose that tPA, initially secreted from injured neurons, acts as a cytokine to activate microglia
at the site of injury. These activated microglia then secrete
additional tPA, which promotes extracellular matrix degradation, neurodegeneration, and self-proliferation. We suggest that an approach
to attenuate microglia-mediated neuronal death in vivo might be to pharmacologically prevent microglial activation.
Key words:
cell-cell interactions; microglial activation; transgenic mice; hippocampus; neurodegeneration; in
vivo
Copyright © 2003 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/03/2383234-09$05.00/0
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