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Humanin improves impaired metabolic activity and prolongs survival of serum-deprived human lymphocytes

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Abstract

Humanin (HN) has been reported to be an endogenous peptide that exerts highly selective neuroprotection against cell death induced by various types of Alzheimer's disease-related insults. We previously proposed the much broader cytoprotective potential of HN from the result that HN suppressed serum-deprivation-induced death of rat pheochromocytoma cells. In this study, we showed that HN also suppressed death of human lymphocytes cultured under serum-deprived condition. Further, we revealed, by assaying metabolic activity and survival rate, that HN was a potent factor capable of increasing the metabolic activity of individual serum-deprived lymphocytes. To our knowledge, there is no report described about a rescue factor that increases the metabolic activity of individual serum-deprived cells and prolongs their survival. This novel feature of HN may enable us to apply this peptide for the management of diseases involving poor metabolic activity, such as mitochondria-related disorders and brain ischemia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Nara Medical University, 840 Shijo-cho, Kashihara, Nara, 634-8522, Japan

    Shingo Kariya, Nobuyuki Takahashi, Makito Hirano & Satoshi Ueno

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  1. Shingo Kariya
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  2. Nobuyuki Takahashi
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  3. Makito Hirano
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  4. Satoshi Ueno
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Kariya, S., Takahashi, N., Hirano, M. et al. Humanin improves impaired metabolic activity and prolongs survival of serum-deprived human lymphocytes. Mol Cell Biochem 254, 83–89 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1027372519726

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