Effect of acidosis, oxidative stress, and glutamate toxicity on the survival of mature and immature cultured cerebellar granule cells

Abstract

The effects of various pathogenic factors on the viability of cultured immature and mature granule cells of rat cerebellum that developed during brain hypoxia and reoxygenation were compared. These factors included acidosis, oxidative stress, and glutamate toxicity. Incubation of both mature (seven-nine daysof culturing) and immature (three-four days of culturing) cerebellar granule cells for 24 hours under the conditions of external acidosis or oxidative stress was shown to induce neuronal death in these cultures. Immature neurons were significantly more sensitive to these factors than mature ones. Immature neurons were also more sensitive to the staurosporine apoptosis inductor. However, glutamate treatment (100 μM) resulted in neuronal death only in the mature cultures. The results demonstrated that immature neurons were more sensitive to damaging factors not connected with glutamate toxicity than the mature neurons.