Alteration of neurotrophin and cytokine expression in lymphocytes as novel peripheral markers of spatial memory deficits induced by prenatal stress.

Much evidence has suggested that early life adversity can have a lasting effect on behavior. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of prenatal exposure to stress on cognition in adult life and how it impacts chronic stress situations. In addition, we investigated the participation of glucocorticoids, neurotrophins and cytokines in prenatal stress effects. For this purpose, pregnant mice were placed in a cylindrical restraint tube for 2h daily during the last week of pregnancy. Control pregnant females were left undisturbed during their entire pregnancy period. Object-in-place task results showed that adult female mice exposed to prenatal stress exhibited an impairment in spatial memory. However, in the alternation test this memory deficit was only found in prenatally stressed mice submitted to chronic stress. This alteration occurred in parallel with a decrease in BDNF, an increase in glucocorticoid receptors and an alteration of Th1/Th2 in the hippocampus. Interestingly, these changes were observed in peripheral lymph nodes as well. However, none of the mentioned changes were observed in adult male mice. These results indicate that lymphoid cells could be good candidates as peripheral markers of susceptibility to behavioral alterations associated with prenatal exposure to stress.

Differential effect of hyperglycaemia on the immune response in an experimental model of diabetes in BALB/cByJ and C57Bl/6J mice: participation of oxidative stress.

Diabetes is associated with an increased risk of death from infectious disease. Hyperglycaemia has been identified as the main factor contributing to the development of diseases associated with diabetes mellitus. However, experimental evidence indicates individual susceptibility to develop complications of diabetes. In this context, the aim of this work was to study the immune response in a streptozotocin-induced type 1 diabetes in two mouse strains: BALB/cByJ and C57Bl/6J. The participation of hyperglycaemia and oxidative stress was also analysed. Diabetic BALB/cByJ mice showed a decrease in both the in-vivo and in-vitro immune responses, whereas diabetic C57Bl/6J mice had higher blood glucose but exhibited no impairment of the immune response. The influence of hyperglycaemia over the immune response was evaluated by preincubation of lymphocytes from normal mice in a high glucose-containing medium. T and B cells from BALB/cByJ mice showed a decrease in cell viability and mitogen-stimulated proliferation and an increase in apoptosis induction. An increase in oxidative stress was implicated in this deleterious effect. These parameters were not affected in the T and B lymphocytes from C57Bl/6J mice. In conclusion, BALB/cByJ mice were sensitive to the deleterious effect of hyperglycaemia, while C57BL/6J were resistant. Although an extrapolation of these results to clinical conditions must be handled with caution, these results highlight the need to contemplate the genetic background to establish models to study the deleterious effect of diabetes in order to understand phenotypical variations that are of clinical importance in the treatment of patients.

Possible involvement of stress hormones and hyperglycaemia in chronic mild stress-induced impairment of immune functions in diabetic mice.

Stress, an important aspect of modern life, has long been associated with an altered homeostatic state. Little is known about the effect of the life stress on the outcome of diabetes mellitus, especially related to the higher risk of infections. Here, we evaluate the effects of chronic mild stress (CMS) exposure on the evolution of type I diabetes induced by streptozotocin administration in BALB/c mice. Exposure of diabetic mice to CMS resulted in a significant reduction of survival and a sustained increase in blood glucose values. Concerning the immune response, chronic stress had a differential effect in mice with diabetes with respect to controls, showing a marked decrease in both T- and B-cell proliferation. No correlation was found between splenic catecholamine or circulating corticosterone levels and the proliferative response. However, a significant negative correlation was found between glucose levels and concanavalin A- and lipopolysaccharide-stimulated proliferative responses of T and B cells. A positive correlation between blood glucose and splenic catecholamine concentrations was found in diabetic mice but not in controls subjected to CMS. Hence, the present report shows that diabetic mice show a worse performance in immune function after stress exposure, pointing to the importance of considering life stress as a risk factor for patients with diabetes.

Impaired immune responses in streptozotocin-induced type I diabetes in mice. Involvement of high glucose.

Diabetes is widely believed to predispose to serious infections. However, the mechanisms linking diabetes and immunosuppression are not well defined. One potential mediator of the altered defence mechanisms is hyperglycaemia. It has been identified as the main factor contributing to the development of diseases associated with diabetes mellitus. In this study we analyse the immune response in diabetes and the direct effect of hyperglycaemia on T and B lymphocyte reactivity. Diabetes induced an early decrease in IgG levels in the secondary response. However, both primary responses against a T-cell-dependent or independent antigen were affected after 6 months of diabetes induction. T- and B- cell proliferation was only decreased at this time. To gain insight into the potential mechanisms involved, we evaluated the influence of hyperglycaemia over the immune response. Pre-incubation of lymph node and spleen cells in a high glucose (HG) containing medium led to a significant time- and dose-dependent decrease in T- and B-cell proliferation. This effect was associated with the presence of HG-derived supernatants. Still viable cells after HG exposition were able to improve their proliferative response when cultured with the mitogen in a fresh standard medium. HG diminished cell viability, increased apoptosis and induced oxidative stress in lymphocytes. These results indicate that HG concentrations can directly affect lymphoid cell growth. An increase in oxidative stress would be implicated in this deleterious effect. The possibility that prolonged exposure to pathologically HG concentrations would result in the immunosuppressive state observed in diabetes is also discussed.

Dehydroepiandrosterone and metformin regulate proliferation of murine T lymphocytes.

The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA: 10 microM) and metformin (10 microM and 100 microM) in regulating proliferation of cultured T lymphocytes. T cells were isolated from lymph nodes of prepuberal BALB/c mice. We found that DHEA, metformin and DHEA + metformin added to the incubation media diminished proliferation of T cells. The inhibition by DHEA was higher than that produced by metformin, while the combined treatment showed a synergistic action that allowed us to speculate distinct regulatory pathways. This was supported later by other findings in which the addition of DHEA to the incubation media did not modify T lymphocyte viability, while treatment with metformin and DHEA + metformin diminished cellular viability and increased both early and late apoptosis. Moreover, DHEA diminished the content of the anti-oxidant molecule glutathione (GSH), whereas M and DHEA + metformin increased GSH levels and diminished lipid peroxidation. We conclude that DHEA and metformin diminish proliferation of T cells through different pathways and that not only the increase, but also the decrease of oxidative stress inhibited proliferation of T cells, i.e. a minimal status of oxidative stress, is necessary to trigger cellular response.

Participation of nitric oxide and cyclic GMP in the supersensitivity of acute diabetic rat myocardium by cholinergic stimuli.

The purpose of this study was to explore the pharmacological and biochemical mechanisms involved in diabetic cardiomyopathy, with particular interest in the abnormal function of cholinergic neurotransmission at the onset of the pathology. The muscarinic acethylcholine agonist carbachol showed a negative inotropic response on both normal and diabetic isolated atria, but the latter showed a supersensitive response. No changes were found in muscarinic acethylcholine receptor (mAChR) expression. Measurements of mAChR-associated second messengers indicated no significant differences between normal and diabetic rat atria in the stimulatory effect of carbachol on protein kinase C activity and the production of inositol phosphates, or in the inhibitory effect induced by carbachol on cyclic AMP (cAMP) production. On the contrary, nitric oxide (NO) synthase activity and cyclic GMP production were higher in diabetic cardiac preparations than in normal ones. Moreover, in diabetic atria, nitric oxide synthase and guanylate cyclase inhibitors shifted the carbachol concentration-response curve on contractility to the right, reaching values similar to those of normal atria. These results suggest an early alteration in the mACh system during the diabetic state, associated with increased production of nitric oxide and cyclic GMP (cGMP). This, in turn, could increase the biological mechanical activity of the mAChR agonist, inducing in this way a higher pharmacological response, without changes in mAChR expression.

Mitogenic effect of erythropoietin on neonatal rat cardiomyocytes: signal transduction pathways.

The mitogenic effect of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEpo) on primary cultures of neonatal rat cardiac myocytes was observed. rHuEpo triggered a dose-dependent increase in myocyte proliferation. The hormone effect over optimally grown control culture 1 day after addition was maximum with 0.5 U/ml and was inhibited with anti-rHuEpo. Inhibitors of enzymatic pathways known to be involved in the cytokines intracellular mechanism such as genistein (tyrosine kinase inhibitor), 2-nitro-4-carboxyphenyl-N,N-diphenylcarbamate (phospholipase C [PLC] inhibitor), and 1-(5-isoquinolinylsulfonyl)-2-methyl-piperazine (protein kinase C [PKC] inhibitor) prevented the mitogenic action of rHuEpo. Also the inhibition of Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity by ouabain blunted the stimulatory action of rHuEpo on cell proliferation. The mitogenic action of the hormone was correlated with cardiac membrane paranitrophenylphosphatase (pNPPase) and PKC activity, since concentrations of rHuEpo that stimulate DNA synthesis increased pNPPase and PKC activity. Moreover, the enzymatic inhibition of tyrosine kinase, PLC, and PKC attenuated the stimulatory action of rHuEpo upon cardiac pNPPase activity. In this paper we demonstrate a non-hematopoietic action of rHuEpo showing both mitogenic and enzymatic effect upon primary myocyte cell culture and on pNPPase activity of neonatal rat heart. These effects are related to the capacity of rHuEpo to stimulate Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase activity and appear to be secondary to the activation of tyrosine kinase and PKC, indicating that in the rHuEpo mediated mitogenic action on cardiomyocytes involves the activation of the same enzymatic pathways that have been described by other cytokines in different tissues.

Effect of proteolytic enzymes on masked insulin receptors in rat submaxillary gland microsomes.

Trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin effects on masked insulin receptors were studied. Phospholipase C treatment, incubation in a high ionic strength buffer or solubilization were used as alternative procedures for the unmasking of insulin receptors. These three methods expose receptor structures which are inaccessible to insulin in the current experimental conditions of binding assays without any significant change in binding affinity. Both exposed and masked receptors proved to be equally sensitive to trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin degradation. At 25 degrees C, about 5 micrograms trypsin/ml for 50 min or 80 micrograms alpha-chymotrypsin/ml for 200 min were necessary in each case to cause a 50% inhibition of the binding of 125I-iodo insulin to microsomes. The results suggest that masked receptors are only nonfunctional to bind insulin but they are not located in compartments inaccessible to molecules present in the medium.