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Degradation of Spectrin via Calpains in the Ventral Horn after Transient Spinal Cord Ischemia in Rabbits

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Abstract

In the present study, we investigated chronological changes of μ-calpain, m-calpain and cleaved spectrin αII immunoreactivity in the ventral horn after transient spinal cord ischemia to investigate relationship between calpains and vulnerability to ischemia using abdominal aorta occlusion model in rabbits. Spinal cord sections at the level of L7 were immunostained with calpains and cleaved spectrin αII monoclonal antibodies. μ-Calpain and m-calpain immunoreactivity was significantly increased in the ischemic ventral horn at 30 min and 1 h after ischemia/reperfusion, respectively. Thereafter, they were decreased with time after ischemia/reperfusion: at 48 h after ischemia, their immunoreactivities nearly disappeared in the ischemic ventral horn. Cleaved spectrin αII immunoreactivity was significantly increased in the ventral horn of spinal cord at 12 h after ischemia/reperfusion, and thereafter, its immunoreactivity was decreased with time after ischemia/reperfusion. In addition, spectrin αII protein level (280 kDa) was decreased from 12 h after ischemia/reperfusion; in contrast, cleaved spectrin αII protein level (150 kDa) was significantly increased at 12 h after ischemia/reperfusion. In conclusion, our observations in this study indicate that calpain is associated with neuronal degeneration in the ventral horn at early time after transient spinal cord ischemia via the proteolysis of spectrin αII.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Mr Suek Han, Seung Uk Lee and Ms Hyun Sook Kim for their technical help in this study. This work was supported by the MRC program of MOST/KOSEF (R13-2005-022-01002-0).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, Ewha Medical School and Institute of Neuroscience, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 110-783, South Korea

    Jae-Chul Lee & Won-Ki Kim

  2. Department of Anatomy, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Chunchon, 200-702, South Korea

    In Koo Hwang, Ki-Yeon Yoo, Doung Shoo Kim & Moo Ho Won

  3. Division of Nano Sciences, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, 110-783, South Korea

    Won-Ki Kim

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  1. Jae-Chul Lee
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  2. In Koo Hwang
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Correspondence to Moo Ho Won.

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Jae-Chul Lee and In Koo Hwang equally contribute to this article.

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Lee, JC., Hwang, I.K., Yoo, KY. et al. Degradation of Spectrin via Calpains in the Ventral Horn after Transient Spinal Cord Ischemia in Rabbits. Neurochem Res 31, 989–998 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-006-9104-0

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