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Spatiotemporal Expression of Dexras1 After Spinal Cord Transection in Rats

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Abstract

Dexras1, a brain-enriched member of the Ras subfamily of GTPases, as a novel physiologic nitric oxide (NO) effector, anchor neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) that increased after spinal cord injury (SCI), to specific targets to enhance NO signaling, and is strongly and rapidly induced during treatment with dexamethasone. It is unknown how the central nervous system (CNS) trauma affects the expression of Dexras1. Here we used spinal cord transection (SCT) model to detect expression of Dexras1 at mRNA and protein level in spinal cord homogenates by real-time PCR and Western blot analysis. The results showed that Dexras1 mRNA upregulated at 3 day, 5 day, and 7 day significantly (P < 0.05) that was consistent with the protein level except at 7 day. Immunofluorescence revealed that both neurons and glial cells showed Dexras1 immunoreactivivty (IR) around SCT site, but the proportion is different. Importantly, injury-induced expression of Dexras1 was co-labeled by caspase-3 (apoptotic marker) and Tau-1 (marker for pathological oligodendrocyte). Furthermore, colocalization of Dexras1, carboxy-terminal PSD95/DLG/ZO-1 (PDZ) ligand of nNOS (CAPON) and nNOS was observed in neurons and glial cells, supporting the existence of ternary complexes in this model. Thus, the results that the transient high expression of Dexras1 which localized in apoptotic neurons and pathological oligodendrocytes might provide new insight into the secondary response after SCT.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30300099, No. 30770488), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu province (No. BK2003035, No. BK2006547), and “Six Talent Peak” Foundation of Jiangsu province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory of Neuroregeneration, Nantong University, 19 Qi-xiu Road, Nantong, Jiangsu, 226001, China

    Xin Li, Shuqiong Niu, Zhiqin Guo & Aiguo Shen

  2. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Nantong University (Former Nantong Medical College), Nantong, 226001, China

    Xin Li, Chun Cheng, Shangfeng Gao, Mengling Chen, Yonghua Liu & Haibo Wang

  3. Institute of Medical Biotechnology, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215007, China

    Min Fei

  4. Soochow University & Saier Immuno-biotech Co., Ltd., Suzhou, 215123, China

    Min Fei

  5. Department of Orthopaedics, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, 226001, China

    Jian Zhao & Xiaowei Yu

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  1. Xin Li
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  2. Chun Cheng
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  3. Min Fei
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Correspondence to Aiguo Shen.

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Xin Li, Chun Cheng, and Min Fei contributed equally to this work.

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Li, X., Cheng, C., Fei, M. et al. Spatiotemporal Expression of Dexras1 After Spinal Cord Transection in Rats. Cell Mol Neurobiol 28, 371–388 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10571-007-9253-y

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