Periodicum biologorum, Vol. 111 No. 1, 2009.
Original scientific paper
Expression of serotonin receptor subtypes in rat brain and astrocyte cell cultures: an ageand tissue-dependent process
DAVID OSREDKAR
; Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Korytkova 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
MOJCA KRŽAN
; Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Toxicology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana, Korytkova 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Abstract
Background and Purpose: Serotonin (5-HT) mediates its effects on
neuronal and non-neuronal cells in rat brain through thirteen receptor subtypes. To obtain better insight into 5-HT responsive cells, we investigated the expression of all known rat 5-HT receptors in various brain regions, at various animal ages, and in various sample types.
Materials and Methods: The presence of all 5-HT receptor mRNAs was
studied with the reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in eight sample groups. We isolated brain cortex and erebellum from 3-day-old and adult Wistar rats of both sexes, which were used directly for the experiment and for growing the astrocyte cell cultures.We performed the experiment on the astrocyte cell cultures after 3 weeks of growth in culture.
Results and Conclusions:We determined that neonatal brain tissue and astrocyte cultures from neonatal rats express more 5-HT receptor subtypes than their adult counterparts. In all tissue samples we detected the same or a larger number of 5-HT receptor subtypes than in the corresponding astrocyte cultures. The expression pattern of 5-HT receptor subtypes also differed between rat cortex and cerebellum. Only subtypes 5-HT1B and 5-HT2A were found in all the samples studied, and we did not detect the message for subtype 5-HT3 in any of the samples. In conclusion, the expression of 5-HT receptors is age- and brain region-dependent, and astrocyte cultures do not reflect the situation in vivo.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
36034
URI
Publication date:
31.3.2009.
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