Skip to main content
Log in

Glutamate triggers elevation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration in neural precursor cells

  • Published:
Cytotechnology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Both neurons and glial cells are derived from neuralprecursor cells in the ventricular zone during braindevelopment. The fate of the neural precursor cells isaffected by neurotransmitters such as glutamate. Inthis study, we examined glutamate-triggeredintracellular Ca2+ signaling in neural precursorcell lines by the calcium digital imaging method. Whenimmortalized primary-cultured neural precursor cellswere treated with glutamate, a subpopulation of thesecells showed an increase in intracellular Ca2+concentration. In an effort to determine the role ofthe glutamate-triggered intracellular Ca2+ signalin neural precursor cells, we tried to cultureimmortalized basal ganglial and hippocampal neuralprecursor cell lines in glutamate-free medium. Thehippocampal (MHP-2) cells became adapted to theglutamate-free medium, and when treated with glutamatethe adapted subline (MHP-2-E1) showed an increase inintracellular Ca2+ concentration. In contrast,the basal ganglial neural precursor cell lines failedto become adapted to the glutamate-free medium. Theseresults suggest that hippocampal and basal ganglialneural precursor cells differ in their cellularresponse to glutamate as an exogenous stimulus.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bar-Peled O, Ben-Hur H, Biegon A, Groner Y, Dewhurst S, Furuta A and Rothstein JD (1997) Distribution of glutamate transporter subtypes during human brain development. J Neurochem 69: 2571–2580.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrarese C, Pecora N, Frigo M, Appollonio I and Frattola L (1993) Assessment of reliability and biological significance of glutamate levels in cerebrospinal fluid. Ann Neurol 33: 316–319.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herb A, Burnashev N, Werner P, Sakmann B, Wisden W and Seeburg PH (1992) The KA-2 subunit of excitatory amino acid receptors shows widespread expression in brain and forms ion channels with distantly related subunits. Neuron 8: 775–785.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johansson CB, Momma S, Clarke DL, Risling M, Lendahl U and Frisen J (1999) Identification of a neural stem cell in the adult mammalian central nervous system. Cell 96: 25–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johe KK, Hazel TG, Muller T, Dugich-Djordjevic MM and McKay RDG (1996) Single factors direct the differentiation of stem cells from the fetal and adult central nervous system. Genes Dev 10: 3129–3140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Joly C, Gomeza J, Brabet I, Curry K, Bockaert J and Pin J-P (1995) Molecular, functional, and pharmacological characterization of the metabotropic glutamate receptor type 5 splice variants: comparison with mGluR1. J Neurosci 15: 3970–3981.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaMantia A-S (1995) The usual suspects: GABA and glutamate may regulate proliferation in the neocortex. Neuron 15: 1223–1225.

    Google Scholar 

  • LoTurco JJ, Owens DF, Heath MJS, Davis MBE and Kriegstein AR (1995) GABA and glutamate depolarize cortical progenitor cells and inhibit DNA synthesis. Neuron 15: 1287–1298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lundberg C, Martinez-Serrano A, Cattaneo E, McKay RDG and Bjorklund A (1997) Survival, integration, and differentiation of neural stem cell lines after transplantation to adult rat striatum. Exp Neurol 145: 342–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martinez-Serrano A and Bjorklund A (1997) Immortalized neural progenitor cells for CNS gene transfer and repair. Trends Neurosci 20: 530–538.

    Google Scholar 

  • McKay RDG (1997) Stem cells in the central nervous system. Science 276: 66–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paas Y (1998) The macro-and microarchitectures of the ligandbinding domain of glutamate receptors. Trends Neurosci 21: 117–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pin J-P, Waeber C, Prezeau L, Bockaert J and Heineman SF (1992) Alternative splicing generates metabotropic glutamate receptors including different patterns of calcium release in Xenopus oocytes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89: 10331–10335.

    Google Scholar 

  • Studer L, Tabar V and McKay RDG (1998) Transplantation of expanded mesencephalic precursors leads to recovery in parkinsonian rats. Nature Neurosci 1: 290–295.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suhonen JO, Peterson DA, Ray J and Gage FH (1996) Differentiation of adult hippocampus-derived progenitors into olfactory neurons in vivo. Nature 383: 624–627.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vicario-Abejon C, Johe KK, Hazel TG, Collazo D and McKay RDG (1995) Functions of basic fibroblast growth factor and neurotrophins in the differentiation of hippocampal neurons. Neuron 15: 105–114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamada K, Hisatsune T, Uchino S, Nakamura T, Kudo Y and Kaminogawa S (1999) NMDA receptor-mediated Ca2+ responses in neurons differentiated from p53? / ? immortalized neural stem cells. Neurosci Lett (in press).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Yoshida, N., Yamada, K., Uchino, S. et al. Glutamate triggers elevation of intracellular Ca2+ concentration in neural precursor cells. Cytotechnology 33, 157–165 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008102621059

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008102621059

Navigation