PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Manabu Tsuda
AU  - Kazunori Imaizumi
AU  - Taiichi Katayama
AU  - Kazuo Kitagawa
AU  - Akio Wanaka
AU  - Masaya Tohyama
AU  - Tsutomu Takagi
TI  - Expression of Zinc Transporter Gene, ZnT-1, Is Induced after Transient Forebrain Ischemia in the Gerbil
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.17-17-06678.1997
DP  - 1997 Sep 01
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 6678--6684
VI  - 17
IP  - 17
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/17/17/6678.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/17/17/6678.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.1997 Sep 01; 17
AB  - To elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying neuronal death after transient forebrain ischemia, we cloned genes expressed after transient forebrain ischemia in the Mongolian gerbil by a differential display method. A gerbil homolog of rat zinc transporter, ZnT-1, which transports intracellular Zn2+ out of cells, was isolated. Its expression became detectable exclusively in pyramidal neurons of the CA1 region 12 hr after ischemia and reached a maximum from day 1 to day 2 as shown by in situ hybridization. By day 7, expression had disappeared entirely from the cells in the CA1 region, because the neurons had died. No other brain regions exhibited such a significant level of ZnT-1 mRNA expression during this period. Zn2+ was shown to accumulate in CA1 pyramidal neurons expressing ZnT-1 mRNA after the ischemia by using zinquin, a zinc-specific fluorescent dye. When primary hippocampal neurons were exposed to a high dose of Zn2+, ZnT-1 mRNA accumulated. These results suggest that the induction of ZnT-1 mRNA observed in CA1 neurons was caused by an increase in the intracellular Zn2+ concentration. It was reported recently that Zn2+ chelator blocked neuronal death after ischemia and that the influx of Zn2+ might be a key mechanism underlying neuronal death. The induction of ZnT-1 mRNA in CA1 pyramidal neurons fated to die after transient ischemia is of interest to the study of postischemic events and the molecular mechanisms underlying delayed neuronal death.