FGF-2 in Astroglial Cells during Vertebrate Spinal Cord Recovery
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1
Alexandria University, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Egypt
FGF-2 is a pleiotrophic cytokine with neurotrophic and gliogenic properties both in vivo and in vitro. In the brain, it is localized in astrocytes and discrete neuronal populations. FGF-2 is known to regulate CNS injury responses, which include transformation of reactive astrocytes, scar formation, neurogenesis, and promotion of neurotrophic activities. Astrocytes become reactive following both central and peripheral nervous system injury. These activated cells undergo hypertrophy.
A key indicator of astrocyte activation is the increased accumulation of intermediate filaments composed of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). Following a physical insult to brain or spinal cord, reactive astrocytes near the damage site show increased FGF-2 immunoreactivity. Thus, FGF-2 appears to participate in astrocytic differentiation and proliferation and a good candidate for astrocytic function regulation in healthy, injured, or diseased CNS.
To further investigate the cellular mechanisms underlying FGF-2 restorative actions and to analyze, in more details, the changes within astroglial cells, we studied the localization of GFAP and FGF-2 in adult intact and injured Pleurodeles CNS. Our results show that spinal cord injury triggers a significant increase in FGF-2 immunoreactivity in reactive astrocytes at sites of insult. In addition, these results were time-dependent. Increase in FGF-2 immunoreactivity along the CNS axis, starting 1-week post-injury, was long-lasting extending to 6 weeks. This increase was accompanied by an increase in GFAP immunoreactivity in the same spatial pattern except in SC3 where its level was almost similar to sham-operated animals. Therefore, we suggest that FGF2 may be involved in cell proliferation and/or astroglial cells differentiation after body spinal cord transection in salamander, and could thus play an important role in locomotion recovery after spinal lesion.
Acknowledgments: Part of the experiments were performed in the physiopathology of neuronal networks laboratory, INSERM U862, Equipe NAGY, Neurocentre Magendie, 146 rue Leo Saignat, 33077 Bordeaux Cedex, France.
Keywords:
Fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2),
Nerve Regeneration,
Pleurodele waltlii
Conference:
3rd Mediterranean Conference of Neuroscience , Alexandria, Egypt, 13 Dec - 16 Dec, 2009.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
CNS Diseases
Citation:
Fahmy
G and
Moftah
M
(2009). FGF-2 in Astroglial Cells during Vertebrate Spinal Cord Recovery.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
3rd Mediterranean Conference of Neuroscience .
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.16.151
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Received:
25 Nov 2009;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2009.
*
Correspondence:
Marie Moftah, Alexandria University, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria, Egypt, marie.moftah@alexu.edu.eg