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Signal Transduction and Neurotoxicity: What Can We Learn from Experimental Culture Systems?

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Cell Culture Techniques

Part of the book series: Neuromethods ((NM,volume 56))

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Abstract

Signal transduction is a key process to transmit information from the extracellular milieu, and to elicit changes in the biological activity of target cells. Several cell signaling pathways can be targeted by neurotoxicants and developmental neurotoxicants. This chapter focuses on the interactions of ethanol, a known human developmental neurotoxicant, with signal transduction pathways stimulated by acetylcholine through activation of muscarinic receptors. It shows how initial observations in vivo, upon developmental exposure to ethanol, have been followed-up by a series of studies in cell culture systems which have allowed the discoveries that ethanol, by interfering with muscarinic signaling in astroglial cells, inhibits their proliferation and their ability to foster neuronal differentiation. Such effects of alcohol may be related to microencephaly and abnormal neuronal development, two hallmarks of the fetal alcohol syndrome.

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Acknowledgments

Studies by the authors were supported in part by grants from NIAAA (AA-08154) and NIEHS (P30ES07033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Lucio G. Costa

  2. Department of Human Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Forensic Science, University of Parma Medical School, Parma, Italy

    Lucio G. Costa

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  1. Lucio G. Costa
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  2. Gennaro Giordano
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  3. Marina Guizzetti
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Correspondence to Lucio G. Costa .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Garland Avenue 2215-B, Nashville, 37232, Tennessee, USA

    Michael Aschner

  2. Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques, Neurochemistry & Neuropharmacology, CSIC, C/ Rosselló 161, Barcelona, 08036, Spain

    Cristina Suñol

  3. Inst. for Health & Consumer Protection, ECVAM In-Vitro Methods Unit, European Commission JRC, Via Enrico Fermi 1, Ispra, 21026, Varese, Italy

    Anna Bal-Price

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Costa, L.G., Giordano, G., Guizzetti, M. (2011). Signal Transduction and Neurotoxicity: What Can We Learn from Experimental Culture Systems?. In: Aschner, M., Suñol, C., Bal-Price, A. (eds) Cell Culture Techniques. Neuromethods, vol 56. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-077-5_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-077-5_11

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