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https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jbsc/038/05/0877-0886

Apoptosis; CHOP; endoplasmic reticulum stress; GRP78; status epilepticus

We sought to clarify the involvement and the intra-cerebral distribution variability of C/EBP homologous protein (CHOP), a representative molecule related to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress-induced cell death signalling pathways, in neuronal death resulting from status epilepticus in rats. The expression patterns of CHOP and glucose-regulated protein (GRP) 78, a good marker of ER stress, were assessed by Western blotting, real-time PCR, Hoechst and immunohistochemistry in the hippocampus, cortex and striatum on a status epilepticus (SE) model. Double-fluorescent staining of CHOP and the terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated DNA nick-end labelling (TUNEL) method were performed to clarify the involvement of CHOP in cell death. SE resulted in a time-dependent increase in the expression of GRP78 and CHOP. The expression of GRP78 protein was increased at 3, 6 and 12 h after SE and no brain region variability was found. The expression of CHOP protein was also increased, reached its peak at 24 h and remained high at 48 h. CHOP protein expression, however, showed brain region variability with highest expression noted in the hippocampus followed by the striatum, and lowest in the cortex. The up-regulation of CHOP occurring at the transcriptional level was demonstrated by real-time PCR. Double fluorescence showed that CHOP expression strongly correlated with neurons undergoing apoptosis. The results indicated that SE compromises the function of the ER and that the hippocampus is more vulnerable than the cortex and the striatum.

Jing Chen^{1 2} Hu Guo^{1 2} Guo Zheng¹ Zhong-Nan Shi¹

1. Department of Neurology, Nanjing Children’s Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, No. 72, Guangzhou Road, Gu Lou District, Nanjing 210008, People’s Republic of China
2. These authors are both first authors.

Published

December 2013

Manuscript received

11 June 2013

Accepted

15 October 2013