Dexamethasone does not ameliorate gliosis in a mouse model of neurodegenerative disease

Xiaolian Ye; Gang Zou; Jinxing Hou; Huiru Bi; Cuihua Zhou; Runmin Wang; Yun Xu; Chun Wang; Guiquan Chen; Zhenyu Yin; Jinping Zhang; Chaoli Huang

doi:10.1016/j.bbrep.2020.100817

Dexamethasone does not ameliorate gliosis in a mouse model of neurodegenerative disease

Biochem Biophys Rep. 2020 Sep 24:24:100817. doi: 10.1016/j.bbrep.2020.100817. eCollection 2020 Dec.

Authors

Xiaolian Ye¹, Gang Zou¹, Jinxing Hou¹, Huiru Bi¹, Cuihua Zhou², Runmin Wang¹, Yun Xu³, Chun Wang⁴, Guiquan Chen¹, Zhenyu Yin⁴, Jinping Zhang⁵, Chaoli Huang¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, MOE Key Laboratory of Model Animal for Disease Study, Model Animal Research Center, Nanjing University, 12 Xuefu Avenue, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210061, China.
² Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Changzhou People's Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Changzhou, Jiangsu, 213000, China.
³ Department of Neurology, Jiangsu Provincial Key Medical Discipline, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, 321 Zhongshan Avenue, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210008, China.
⁴ Department of Geriatric, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, 321 Zhongshan Avenue, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210008, China.
⁵ Department of Medicament, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University Medical School, 321 Zhongshan Avenue, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 210008, China.

Abstract

Prolonged neuroinflammation is a driving force for neurodegenerative disease, and agents against inflammatory responses are regarded as potential treatment strategies. Here we aimed to evaluate the prevention effects on gliosis by dexamethasone (DEX), an anti-inflammation drug. We used DEX to treat the nicastrin conditional knockout (cKO) mouse, a neurodegenerative mouse model. DEX (10 mg/kg) was given to 2.5-month-old nicastrin cKO mice, which have not started to display neurodegeneration and gliosis, for 2 months. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Western blotting techniques were used to detect changes in neuroinflammatory responses. We found that activation of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) positive or ionized calcium binding adapter molecule1 (Iba1) positive cells was not inhibited in nicastrin cKO mice treated with DEX as compared to those treated with saline. These data suggest that DEX does not prevent or ameliorate gliosis in a neurodegenerative mouse model when given prior to neuronal or synaptic loss.

Keywords: Dexamethasone; Neurodegeneration; Neuroinflammation; Neuron; Synaptic loss.