Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Physiological Society
Résumé : Full text: http://jn.physiology.org/content/88/3/1475
International audience
The contribution of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC) to the development of cultured embryonic cockroach brain neurons was assessed using pharmacological agents. VGCC currents were recorded using the patch-clamp technique and were found to be blocked dose-dependently by micromolar concentrations of mibefradil. The activation and inactivation properties of the calcium channels enable a sizeable calcium current to flow at rest (about -30 and -20 mV in high-potassium culture media). As expected, the cytoplasmic-free calcium concentration was found to rise when the extracellular potassium concentration was raised from 3 to 15 and 30 mM. The effects of VGCC blockers and calcium chelators were different in fresh and in mature cultures in which the neurons were connected to each other to form a defined network. In fresh cultures, the two non-selective VGCC blockers (verapamil and mibefradil) induced a dose-dependent cell death that was proportional to their blocking effect on I(Ba). This effect could not be prevented by addition of fetal calf serum to the culture medium. A similar effect was obtained using intra- or extracellular calcium chelating agents (10 microM BAPTA-AM or 10 mM EGTA). Quite unexpectedly, blockade of the P/Q-like (omega-Aga WA-sensitive) component of the calcium current by 500 nM of omega-AgaTx IVA had no lethal effect, suggesting that the corresponding channels are not involved in the survival mechanism. As expected from their lack of effect on I(Ba), isradipine, nifedipine, and omega-CgTx GVIA did not induce cell death. When the neurons started growing neurites, their sensitivity to calcium channel blockade by mibefradil decreased, indicating a correlation between neurite outgrowth and resistance to calcium depletion. In mature cultures, the neurons became resistant to mibefradil, verapamil, and BAPTA-AM. However, these agents, as well as omega-AgaTx IVA, had a significant inhibitory effect on the increase in diameter of the connectives that linked adjacent clusters of neurons. This effect has been shown to result, in the case of mibefradil, from an inhibition of neurite outgrowth characterized by a significant reduction of the number of primary neurites and secondary branchings but not to a significant modification of the diameter of individual neurites. These results support the view that, as in vertebrates, calcium influx through VGCC plays an important role in survival and neurite outgrowth of cultured embryonic insect neurons. The differential contribution of the P/Q-like and R-like (omega-Aga WA-sensitive) calcium channels in these processes is discussed.
ISSN: 0022-3077

hal-00982287
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00982287
DOI : 10.1152/jn.00749.2001
PUBMED : 12205168

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Xeno-estrogens, a class of endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), can disturb estrogen receptor-dependent pathways involved in differentiation, proliferation or protection. Multiple methods have been developed to characterize the disturbances induced by EDCs in different cells or organs. In this study we have developed a new tool for the assessment of estrogenic compounds on differentiation. For this purpose we used the global model of NGF-induced neurite outgrowth of a pseudoneuronal PC12 cell line stably transfected with estrogen receptor alpha (PC12 ER). This new test evidences a new selectivity in which estradiol, genistein and 4-hydroxytamoxifen increased the NGF-induced neurite outgrowth of PC12 ER cells in a dose-dependent manner. In contrast, the strong estrogen agonist 17α-ethynylestradiol, the strong antagonist raloxifene and the agonist bisphenol A were unable to modify the neuritogenesis of PC12 ER cells. Therefore, the analysis of neuritogenesis in PC12 ER cells constitutes a complementary tool for the characterization of xeno-estrogen activity and also serves as a basis for further studies focusing on the mechanisms of EDCs in a neuronal context. Moreover, this test constitutes an alternative to animal testing.
ISSN: 0045-6535

hal-01063907
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01063907
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01063907/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01063907/file/Differentiationsur PC12_cells_accepted.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2014.03.101

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Background In life sciences, there is a growing need for new informatics tools designed to provide automated solutions in order to analyze big amounts of images obtained from high-throughput imaging systems. Among the most widely used assays in neurotoxicity, endocrinology and brain diseases, the neurite outgrowth assay is popular. New method Cell-to-cell quantification of the main morphological features of neurite outgrowth assays remains very challenging. Here, we provide a new pipeline developed on Fiji software for analysis of series of two-dimensional images. It allows the automated analysis of most of these features. Results We tested the accuracy and usefulness of the software by confirming the effects of estradiol and hypoxia on in vitro neuronal differentiation, previously published by different authors with manual analysis methods. With this new method, we highlighted original interesting data. Comparison with existing method(s) The innovation brought by this plugin lies in the fact that it can process multiple images at the same time, in order to obtain: the number of nuclei, the number of neurites, the length of neurites, the number of neurites junctions, the number of neurites branches, the length of each branch, the position of the branch in the image, the angle of each branch, but also the area of each cell and the number of neurites per cell. Conclusions This plugin is easy to use, highly sensitive, and allows the experimenter to acquire ready-to-use data coming from a vast amount of images. © 2016 Elsevier B.V.
Journal of Neuroscience Methods

hal-01367152
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01367152
DOI : 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2016.07.011
PUBMED : 27450924

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Technologies for wireless telecommunication systems using millimeter waves (MMW) will be widely deployed in the near future. Forthcoming applications in this band, especially around 60 GHz, are mainly developed for high data-rate local and body-centric telecommunications. At those frequencies, electromagnetic radiations have a very shallow penetration into biological tissues, making skin keratinocytes, and free nerve endings of the upper dermis the main targets of MMW. Only a few studies assessed the impact of MMW on neuronal cells, and none of them investigated a possible effect on neuronal differentiation. We used a neuron-like cell line (PC12), which undergoes neuronal differentiation when treated with the neuronal growth factor (NGF). PC12 cells were exposed at 60.4 GHz for 24 h, at an incident power density averaged over the cell monolayer of 10 mW/cm2. Using a large scale cell-by-cell analysis based on high-content screening microscopy approach, we assessed potential effects of MMW on PC12 neurite outgrowth and cytoskeleton protein expression. No differences were found in protein expression of the neuronal marker β3-Tubulin nor in internal expression control β-Tubulin. On the other hand, our data showed a slight increase, although insignificant, in neurite outgrowth, induced by MMW exposure. However, experimental controls demonstrated that this increase was related to heating
ISSN: 0304-3940

hal-01281481
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01281481
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01281481/document
https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01281481/file/Effects%20of%2060-GHz%20Millimeter%20Waves%20on%20Neurite.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.neulet.2016.02.038