Effect of TRPC1 depletion on survival of cerebral nerve cells / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM:To study the effect of transient receptor potential channel 1 ( TRPC1) on the survival of hip-pocampal neurons in mice.METHODS:TRPC1 knockout mice and the control mice (6 months old) were used in this study.Immunofluorescence staining of neuron-specific marker NeuN, Nissl staining and TUNEL staining were performed to measure the changes of the neurons in hippocampal CA1, CA3 and dentate gyrus (DG).Western blot analysis was used to detect the levels of pro-apoptotic protein C/EBP homologous protein ( CHOP) and cleaved caspase-3.RESULTS:Immuno-fluorescence staining and Nissl staining showed that the number of neuronal cells was significantly decreased in hippocampal CA1, CA3 and DG of TRPC1 knockout mice compared with the control mice.TUNEL staining showed that the apoptosis neuronal cell number of the above areas in TRPC1 knockout mice was significantly increased compared with the control mice.The results of Western blot revealed that the levels of CHOP and cleaved caspase-3 were significantly increased in the hippocampus of TRPC1 knockout mice relative to the control mice.CONCLUSION:The depletion of TRPC1 induces neu-ronal loss through a mechanism of TRPC1-mediated apoptosis.