A comparative study of beta-amyloid peptides Abeta1-42 and Abeta25-35 toxicity in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures

• Autor(a) principal: Frozza, Rudimar Luiz
• Data de Publicação: 2009
• Outros Autores: Horn, Ana Paula, Hoppe, Juliana Bender, Simão, Fabrício, Gerhardt, Daniéli, Comiran, Ricardo Argenta, Salbego, Christianne Gazzana
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFRGS
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10183/218251
• topic: Peptídeos beta-amilóides; Caspase 3; Doença de Alzheimer; Alzheimer’s disease; Amyloid b-peptide; Organotypic culture; Caspase-3

Accumulation of the neurotoxic amyloid b-peptide (Ab) in the brain is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Several synthetic Ab peptides have been used to study the mechanisms of toxicity. Here, we sought to establish comparability between two commonly used Ab peptides Ab1-42 and Ab25-35 on an in vitro model of Ab toxicity. For this purpose we used organotypic slice cultures of rat hippocampus and observed that both Ab peptides caused similar toxic effects regarding to propidium iodide uptake and caspase-3 activation. In addition, we also did not observe any effect of both peptides on Akt and PTEN phosphorylation; otherwise the phosphorylation of GSK-3b was increased. Although further studies are necessary for understanding mechanisms underlying Ab peptide toxicity, our results provide strong evidence that Ab1-42 and the Ab25-35 peptides induce neural injury in a similar pattern and that Ab25-35 is a convenient tool for the investigation of neurotoxic mechanisms involved in AD.