Dopamine facilitates alpha-synuclein oligomerization in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells.
Parkinson's disease is characterized by selective loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra and by the appearance of Lewy bodies. Fibrillar alpha-synuclein is the main component of Lewy bodies. Previous studies have suggested that dopamine promotes alpha-synuclein oligomerization and that partially aggregated or oligomeric alpha-synuclein could be cytotoxic. To confirm this hypothesis using cell cultures, we performed size exclusion chromatography as a pretreatment method prior to Western blotting to more clearly detect a small amount of alpha-synuclein oligomers in wild-type alpha-synuclein-overexpressing SH-SY5Y cells. Using this method, we confirmed that stable overexpression of alpha-synuclein in SH-SY5Y cells indeed increased the amounts of alpha-synuclein oligomers in these cells and exposure of the cells to dopamine for 6h facilitated alpha-synuclein oligomerization. These dopamine-induced alpha-synuclein oligomers continued to exist for the following 24h. However, the dopamine-treated cells did not undergo cell death or apoptosis in spite of the presence of increased oligomeric alpha-synuclein. Our data may contribute to the understanding of the mechanisms underlying alpha-synuclein oligomer formation and its suspected cytotoxicity toward dopaminergic neurons.[1]References
- Dopamine facilitates alpha-synuclein oligomerization in human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells. Yamakawa, K., Izumi, Y., Takeuchi, H., Yamamoto, N., Kume, T., Akaike, A., Takahashi, R., Shimohama, S., Sawada, H. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. (2010) [Pubmed]
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