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Localization of plasminogen in mouse hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and hypothalamus

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Abstract

Although the tissue plasminogen activator/plasminogen system contributes to numerous brain functions, such as learning, memory, and anxiety behavior, little attention has as yet been given to the localization of plasminogen in the brain. We have investigated the localization of plasminogen in the adult mouse brain by using immunohistochemistry. In the hippocampus, plasminogen immunoreactivity was seen in the pyramidal cell layer as numerous punctate structures in neuronal somata. An electron-microscopic study further demonstrated that the plasminogen-immunoreactive punctate structures represented secretory vesicles and/or vesicle clusters. In the cerebral cortex, plasminogen immunoreactivity was evident in the somata of the layer II/III and V neurons. A quantitative analysis revealed that parvalbumin (PV)-positive neurons had more plasminogen-immunoreactive puncta compared with those of PV-negative neurons in the hippocampus and cerebral cortex. Plasminogen immunoreactivity was present throughout the hypothalamus, being particularly prominent in the neuronal somata of the organum vasculosum laminae terminalis, ventromedial preoptic nucleus, supraoptic nucleus, subfornical organ, medial part of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), posterior part of the PVN, and arcuate hypothalamic nucleus. Thus, plasminogen is highly expressed in specific populations of hippocampal, cortical, and hypothalamic neurons, and plasminogen-containing vesicles are mainly observed at neuronal somata.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Biology, Kyoto Institute of Technology, Matsugasaki, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8585, Japan

    Yuki Taniguchi, Naoko Inoue, Shoko Morita, Yoshikazu Nikaido, Toshihiro Nakashima & Seiji Miyata

  2. Department of Animal Bioscience, Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology, Nagahama, Shiga, 526-0829, Japan

    Nobuo Nagai

  3. Department of Physiology, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osakasayama, Osaka, 589-8511, Japan

    Kiyotaka Okada & Osamu Matsuo

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  1. Yuki Taniguchi
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  2. Naoko Inoue
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  3. Shoko Morita
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  4. Yoshikazu Nikaido
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  5. Toshihiro Nakashima
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  6. Nobuo Nagai
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  7. Kiyotaka Okada
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  8. Osamu Matsuo
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  9. Seiji Miyata
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Correspondence to Seiji Miyata.

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Yuki Taniguchi and Naoko Inoue contributed equally to this work.

This work was supported in part by Scientific Research Grants from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (no. 21500323). The authors express their gratitude to the “High-Tech Research Center” Project for Private Universities.

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Taniguchi, Y., Inoue, N., Morita, S. et al. Localization of plasminogen in mouse hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and hypothalamus. Cell Tissue Res 343, 303–317 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-010-1110-5

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