| First Author | Arantes C | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | Glia | Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 13 | Pages | 1439-49 |
| PubMed ID | 19243016 | Mgi Jnum | J:156202 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:4419050 | Doi | 10.1002/glia.20861 |
| Citation | Arantes C, et al. (2009) Prion protein and its ligand stress inducible protein 1 regulate astrocyte development. Glia 57(13):1439-49 |
| abstractText | Prion protein (PrP(C)) interaction with stress inducible protein 1 (STI1) mediates neuronal survival and differentiation. However, the function of PrP(C) in astrocytes has not been approached. In this study, we show that STI1 prevents cell death in wild-type astrocytes in a protein kinase A-dependent manner, whereas PrP(C)-null astrocytes were not affected by STI1 treatment. At embryonic day 17, cultured astrocytes and brain extracts derived from PrP(C)-null mice showed a reduced expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and increased vimentin and nestin expression when compared with wild-type, suggesting a slower rate of astrocyte maturation in PrP(C)-null animals. Furthermore, PrP(C)-null astrocytes treated with STI1 did not differentiate from a flat to a process-bearing morphology, as did wild-type astrocytes. Remarkably, STI1 inhibited proliferation of both wild-type and PrP(C)-null astrocytes in a protein kinase C-dependent manner. Taken together, our data show that PrP(C) and STI1 are essential to astrocyte development and act through distinct signaling pathways. |