Inflammatory agents regulate in vivo expression of fractalkine in endothelial cells of the rat heart

Fractalkine is distinguished structurally from other chemokines in that it contains a mucin-like stalk that tethers a CX3C chemokine module to a transmembrane-spanning region; its expression in cultured endothelial cells has been shown to be up-regulated by tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 (IL-1). The purpose of this study was to determine whether fractalkine is expressed, in a proinflammatory agent-regulated manner, by cardiac endothelial cells in vivo. Steady state levels of fractalkine mRNA were increased in rat cardiac tissues after in vivo treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), IL-1, or TNF-alpha. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemical analysis revealed that endothelial cells of the coronary vasculature and endocardium were the principal source of proinflammatory agent-inducible fractalkine, although some fractalkine immunoreactivity was also found on the myocytes. These data are the first demonstration of in vivo cardiac endothelial cell fractalkine expression and regulation by proinflammatory agents such as LPS, IL-1, or TNF-alpha. Cardiac endothelial cell-expressed fractalkine may contribute to the influx of leukocytes into the heart during inflammation.

Differential subcellular redistribution of protein kinase C isozymes in the rat hippocampus induced by kainic acid

Protein kinase C (PKC) consists of a family of Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent isozymes that has been implicated in the delayed neurotoxic effects of glutamate in vitro. In the present study, we assessed the effect of the glutamate analogue kainic acid (KA) on the subcellular expression of PKC isozymes in the hippocampus (HPC) in the period preceding (0.5, 1.5, 12, and 24 h) and during (120 h) hippocampal necrosis using western blot analysis and PKC isozyme-specific antibodies. Before subcellular fractionation (cytosol + membrane), hippocampi were microdissected into "HPC" (fields CA1-CA3) and "dentate gyrus" (DG; granule cells + hilus) regions. Four general patterns of alterations in PKC isozyme expression/distribution were observed following KA treatment. The first pattern was a relative stability in expression following KA treatment and was most apparent for cytosol PKCalpha (HPC + DG) and membrane (HPC) and cytosol (DG) PKCbetaII. The second pattern, observed with PKCgamma and PKCepsilon, was characterized by an initial increase in expression in both membrane and cytosolic fractions before seizure activity (0.5 h) followed by a gradual decrease until significant reductions are observed by 120 h. The third pattern, exhibited by PKCdelta, involved an apparent translocation, increasing in the membrane and decreasing in the cytosol, followed by down-regulation in both fractions and subsequent recovery. The fourth pattern was observed with PKCzeta only and entailed a significant reduction in expression before and during limbic motor seizures followed by a dramatic fivefold increase in the membrane fraction during the period of hippocampal necrosis (120 h). Although these patterns did not segregate according to conventional PKC isozyme classifications, they do indicate dynamic isozyme-specific regulation by KA. The subcellular redistribution of PKC isozymes may contribute to the histopathological sequelae produced by KA in the hippocampus and may model the pathogenesis associated with diseases involving glutamate-induced neurotoxicity.