Article

Minocycline attenuates microglial activation but fails to mitigate degeneration in inferior olive and pontine nuclei after focal cerebellar lesion.

Santa Lucia Foundation I.R.C.C.S., Via del Fosso di Fiorano 65, 00143 Rome, Italy.
The Cerebellum (impact factor: 3.21). 08/2008; 7(3):401-5. DOI:10.1007/s12311-008-0042-z pp.401-5
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Degenerative changes in areas remote from the primary lesion site have been linked to the clinical outcome of focal brain damage, and inflammatory mechanisms have been considered to play a key role in the pathogenesis of these remote cell death phenomena. Minocycline is a tetracycline derivative, therapeutically effective in various experimental models of central nervous system (CNS) injuries that include inflammatory and apoptotic mechanisms, although recent findings have yielded mixed results. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of minocycline treatment in reducing remote cell death. Glial activation and neuronal loss in precerebellar stations following cerebellar lesion were investigated using immunohistochemistry and Western blot techniques. Our results show that minocycline was effective in reducing microglial activations in axotomized precerebellar nuclei, but failed to mitigate either astrocytic response or neuronal loss. This finding supports the role of minocycline in modulating inflammatory response after CNS lesion and suggests its ineffectiveness in influencing degenerative phenomena in areas remote from the primary lesion site.

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Keywords

areas remote
 
astrocytic response
 
axotomized precerebellar nuclei
 
central nervous system
 
cerebellar lesion
 
clinical outcome
 
CNS lesion
 
Degenerative changes
 
focal brain damage
 
Glial activation
 
influencing degenerative phenomena
 
microglial activations
 
mixed results
 
modulating inflammatory response
 
neuronal loss
 
primary lesion site
 
remote cell death
 
remote cell death phenomena
 
tetracycline derivative
 
Western blot techniques
 

M Viscomi