Expression changes of telomeric repeat-binding factor 2 in mouse cortical neurons during aging / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe expression changes of the telomeric repeat binding factor 2 (TRF2) in mouse cortical neurons during aging and its biological significance.Methods TRF2 expression in cortical neurons of young (2 months) and old (20 months) C57BL/6J mice were tested by Western blot and real time PCR.pcDNA-TRF2 was transfected in embryonal cortical neurons.Neurons viability was determined by MTT after exposure to camptothecin for 16 h.Results TRF2 expression decreased significantly in cortical neurons in old mice than that in young mice.After exposure to camptothecin for 16 h,(75.4±2.6) ％ of pcDNA TRF2 transfected neurons were viable and the transfection rate was higher in pcDNA-TRF2 transfected neurons than in control transfected neurons [(32.6 ± 9.3) ％] (t =22.85,P ＜ 0.05).Conclusions TRF2 expression decreases significantly in aging mouse,downregulation of TRF2 may participate in neurons aging,and TRF2 overexpression may be a potential therapeutic target against neurodegeneration.