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Phosphorylation of PTEN and Akt in astrocytes of the rat hippocampus following transient forebrain ischemia

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Abstract

To ascertain whether the PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10)/Akt signaling pathway is activated during ischemic brain injury, we investigated the expression and phosphorylation of PTEN and Akt by immunohistochemistry in the rat hippocampus after transient forebrain ischemia. Weak immunoreactivity for PTEN and its phosphorylated form (p-PTEN) was constitutively expressed in hippocampal neurons and astrocytes of the control rats, but their upregulation was detected mainly in reactive astrocytes in the ischemic hippocampus. Increased immunoreactivity for PTEN and p-PTEN occurred specifically in astrocytes by day 1 and was sustained for more than 2 weeks. The spatiotemporal activation of Akt in the ischemic hippocampus mirrored that of p-PTEN expression. Post-ischemic activation of Akt, revealed by phosphorylated Akt (p-Akt) immunoreactivity, was first detected at day 1 and was maintained for at least 2 weeks. Double-labeling experiments revealed that the cells expressing PTEN, p-PTEN, or p-Akt were reactive astrocytes expressing glial fibrillary acidic protein. These results demonstrate the increased phosphorylation of PTEN and Akt in reactive astrocytes of the post-ischemic hippocampus, suggesting that the PTEN/Akt pathway is involved in the astroglial reaction in the rat hippocampus after transient forebrain ischemia.

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Abbreviations

GFAP:

Glial fibrillary acidic protein

PTEN:

Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10

p-PTEN:

Ser380-phosphorylated PTEN

p-Akt:

Ser473-phosphorylated Akt

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Hee-Duck Rho and Byoung-Ouk Hong for their excellent technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 505 Banpo-dong, Socho-gu, Seoul, 137-701, Korea

    Jeong-Sun Choi, Hyun-Jung Park, Ha-Young Kim, Myung-Hoon Chun, Jin-Woong Chung & Mun-Yong Lee

  2. Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, 137-701, Seoul, Korea

    Seong Yun Kim, Ju Eun Lee & Yun-Sik Choi

Authors
  1. Jeong-Sun Choi
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  2. Hyun-Jung Park
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  3. Ha-Young Kim
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  4. Seong Yun Kim
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  5. Ju Eun Lee
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  6. Yun-Sik Choi
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  7. Myung-Hoon Chun
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  8. Jin-Woong Chung
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  9. Mun-Yong Lee
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Correspondence to Mun-Yong Lee.

Additional information

This research was supported by Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (R01-2002-000-00334-0(2002)).

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Choi, JS., Park, HJ., Kim, HY. et al. Phosphorylation of PTEN and Akt in astrocytes of the rat hippocampus following transient forebrain ischemia. Cell Tissue Res 319, 359–366 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-004-1033-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-004-1033-0

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