Peptidergic regulation of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 gene expression in vivo

BACKGROUND

The mechanisms by which PAI-1 biosynthesis is altered during stress have not been fully elucidated. Studies suggest a major role for neuro-peptidergic modulation of the stress response by PACAP (pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide), a member of the VIP/secretin/glucagon family.

OBJECTIVE

We tested the hypothesis that PACAP regulates PAI-1 biosynthesis during stress in vivo.

METHODS

PAI-1 gene expression was monitored by RT-PCR in adrenal glands harvested from C57BL/6J mice that were unstressed, or subjected to restraint stress for 2 h, or treated with PACAP.

RESULTS

PAI-1 mRNA expression was markedly increased in adrenals from stressed mice. Restraint stress resulted in much smaller increments in adrenal tPA mRNA, suggesting that local adrenal tPA/PAI-1 biosynthetic balance is markedly altered by stress. The observed increases in PAI-1mRNA during stress were substantially blunted (55 ± 4%, P < 0.001) by pretreatment with the specific PACAP receptor antagonist, PACAP6-38, compared with pretreatment with vehicle. Administration of the agonist PACAP1-38 alone resulted in a dose-dependent increase in tissue PAI-1 mRNA. PACAP1-38 administration also resulted in substantial increases in plasma PAI-1 antigen and active PAI-1 concentrations that were significantly greater in male mice than in female mice.

CONCLUSIONS

We conclude that adrenal PAI-1 mRNA expression is markedly increased by stress, and that the PACAP peptidergic signaling pathway plays a major role in mediating the stress-induced increase in PAI-1 biosynthesis.

Scientific basis of spasticity: insights from a laboratory model

A variety of central nervous system injuries, diseases, and developmental deficits can lead to motor disorders that present complex mixtures of symptoms. Those that have a fundamental similarity characterized by the appearance of exaggerated velocity-dependent resistance to the lengthening of skeletal muscles are called spasticity. Reports based on clinical observations of motor disorders have and continue to provide the essential database of information regarding the range and distribution of unifying and discordant features of spasticity. Laboratory investigations employing animal models of motor disorders following experimental lesions of the central nervous system have reproduced some of the neurophysiologic changes that accompany injury of the central nervous system in humans. Those experimental lesions produced by spinal cord contusion/compression reproduce many of the histopathologic features displayed in traumatic injury of the human spinal cord as well. Studies using this model have revealed not only changes in reflex threshold and amplitude but also alterations in fundamental rate-modulation processes that regulate reflex excitability during repetitive stimulation. This report characterizes insights obtained from a laboratory investigation in search of fundamental mechanisms that contribute to the development of spasticity and provides a vantage point for understanding therapeutic strategies for treatment of spasticity.

Alteration in rate modulation of reflexes to lumbar motoneurons after midthoracic spinal cord injury in the rat. I. Contusion injury

This study investigated the regulation of reflex excitability in normal and midthoracic contusion-injured animals. Recent observations revealed that rate depression, a rate-modulatory process that decreases reflex excitability, was significantly decreased following experimental midthoracic contusion injury. The present experiments were performed to extend those studies and to determine if posttetanic potentiation (PTP), a rate-modulatory process that increases reflex excitability, also was altered in lumbar monosynaptic reflexes (MSRs) following midthoracic contusion injury. In normal animals, a mean PTP of 160% of the pretetanus control was observed at 30 sec following tetanus of the tibial MSR. The decay of the PTP in normal animals followed a rapid initial, then a more gradual pattern, before returning to pretetanus values by 5 min posttetanus. Following midthoracic contusion injury, the maximal (unpotentiated) MSRs were significantly increased in amplitude, whereas the percent potentiation of the PTP of the tibial MSRs was significantly decreased. PTP decay in postcontusion animals was significantly more gradual than observed in normal animals and followed a single decay process. Further analysis of rate depression of tibial MSRs in normal animals revealed that the attenuation pattern produced by stimulation within the lower range of test frequencies was different from that produced by stimulation at the higher test frequencies. Following contusion, rate depression of tibial MSRs was significantly reduced at all test frequencies. These physiological changes in the stretch reflex neural pathway are discussed relative to the development of spasticity.

Altered patterns of reflex excitability subsequent to contusion injury of the rat spinal cord

1. The present study investigated regulation of reflex excitability after experimental contusion injury of the spinal cord. 2. Four measures of H-reflex excitability were evaluated in normal rats and at 6, 28, and 60 days after contusion injury at the T8 level: 1) reflex thresholds, 2) slope of the reflex recruitment curves, 3) maximal plantar H-reflex/maximal plantar M-response (Hmax/Mmax) ratios, and 4) rate-sensitive depression (i.e., the decrease in reflex magnitude relative to repetition rate). 3. Tested as a function of the afferent volley magnitude, the thresholds for reflex initiation fell progressively subsequent to contusion injury. No change was observed at 6 days postinjury, and the decrease at 28 days was not significant. However, by 60 days postinjury, the threshold had decreased by 23% of the maximal afferent volley, and this decrease was significant, [analysis of variance (ANOVA, P < or = 0.01)]. 4. Hmax/Mmax ratios elicited in postcontusion animals at 0.3 Hz were not significantly different from those recorded in normal animals. 5. The slopes of the recruitment curves were markedly reduced subsequent to contusion injury. The decrease was greatest at 6 days postinjury. Although some recovery toward normal occurred at 28 and 60 days postinjury, the slopes of recruitment curves in postcontusion animals remained significantly decreased. 6. H-reflexes elicited at 1-5 Hz were less sensitive to rate depression in postcontusion animals than in normal animals at the same respective frequencies. The decrease was progressive in onset, becoming significant by 28 days postinjury, and of an enduring nature, i.e., still significantly different from normal in the reflexes tested 60 days postinjury. 7. Rate sensitivity of the tibial nerve monosynaptic reflex (MSR) was also compared in normal and postcontusion animals. Rate sensitivity of the tibial MSRs was significantly reduced at 28 and 60 days post-contusion, compared with normal animals. 8. These data indicate that significant changes in lumbar reflex excitability result from midthoracic contusion injury of the spinal cord. These changes include reflex threshold, slope of recruitment, and rate-sensitive depression. Although recruitment slope was most altered in the shortest postinjury interval tested, followed by some recovery, the other changes were progressive in onset and enduring in duration.

Pigment epithelial function in canine retina

The lateral distribution and temporal changes in the eye standing potential of 15 dogs with normal eyes (as determined by use of an ophthalmoscope and electroretinography) were measured by use of noninvasive methods. The standing potential was converted to an alternating potential by controlled eye movement. The light peak occurred 6 minutes after a stimulus intensity increase of 4 log units. The ratios of the highest measured voltage after the light step divided by the voltage measured immediately before the light step ranged from 1.27 to 2.07 (mean 1.74 +/- SEM, 0.064). The responses typically decayed slowly after the light peak. The potential after the light peak did not return to prelight step values during the observation period. The field potential of the standing potential decreased nonlinearly in temporal direction from the outer canthus.

Very large neurons of the inner retina of humans and other mammals

Large ganglion cells, called parasol cells, are known to occur in the Golgi-stained, human retina. This report describes a population of much larger cells that is not stained by Golgi technique. These cells may be located in the human ganglion cell layer using Nomarski differential interference contrast optics and unstained, flatmounted tissue. These cells are regularly distributed in young and old adults in a Gaussian fashion along the radii that extend from the perimacula toward the far periphery. The author did not find the cells in the central retina. The most frequent (J-type) cells have soma diameters between 26 and 40 microns. Rare (S-type) cells measure up to 55 microns in diameter. Many cells have processes that appear to be axons or dendrites. These cell types may be especially sensitive to damage early in diseases of the inner retina.

Division of the pattern-evoked retinal response by respiratory acidosis

Analysis in the frequency domain divided the pattern-evoked retinal response (PERR) of the cat into two analog components. A mild respiratory acidosis was produced by raising the end-tidal CO2 from 4-6% to 12-14%. The onset of the acidosis (without hypoxia) was highly correlated with marked decreases in the low-frequency PERR component and in the b-wave of the flash-elicited ERG. The high-frequency PERR component was unchanged relative to the labile low-frequency component (p less than 0.01). The literature has established a firm link between local pH and Müller cell function. These data tend to confirm the hypothesis that the cat's PERR to some grating stimuli of less than 100% contrast may contain separable components of different cellular origin(s).

Electroretinal changes in the presence of a carbonic anhydrase inhibitor

A specific carbonic anhydrase activity inhibitor (methazolamide) was injected into one vitreous body each of 4 New Zealand White rabbits. Electroretinograms (ERG) were recorded before and several times after the methazolamide injection. The stimulus levels maximized the rod and cone response characteristics of the rabbit ERG. The effects of methazolamide were followed over 5 h. During this time, the electroretinograms showed a decline in amplitude of both a and b waves at both stimulus levels. The data support the involvement of carbonic anhydrase in the excitatory physiological events in the retina. Preliminary evidence indicates a slow recovery of the carbonic-anhydrase-inhibited ERG.

Tissue responses of the monkey retina: tuning and dependence on inner layer integrity

Recent technical and conceptual advances have made it possible to experiment with models of local human inner retinal disease and changes in very small, tissue-specific signals. Local retrograde degeneration of the ganglion cells was induced in four rhesus monkeys by 160 degrees microdiathermy fiber layer burns at the nasal or temporal edges of the optic disc. There were no abnormalities of the classical electroretinograms (ERGs) during the following 210 days. With nasal lesions, pattern-evoked retinal (PERR) and cortical responses over a range of grating contrasts and spatial frequencies were largely normal. The authors found a cortical spatial tuning peak near 0.5 cycles/deg (cpd) and a retinal peak at 0.25-0.3 cpd. With temporal lesions, the retinal signals to high frequency stimuli (greater than 1.0 cpd) approached zero between 20-60 days. The cortical evoked signal declined with a course similar to the retinal components. Histological evidence was found for extensive loss of ganglion cells and fibers in a central 30-40 degrees temporal area, including the macula, 210 days after the temporal lesions. This is strong evidence that local ganglion cell-dependent electrical potentials, bearing little relation to the ERG, can be measured in response to selected stimuli.