Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia afflicting the elderly. Recent studies have increasingly suggested that a high concentration of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) may be important in AD pathogenesis. However, the mechanisms and pathways involved remain unknown. The aim of this study was to explore whether the mechanism of the effect of AGEs on Aβ‑PC12 cells [PC1...

The promoter region of the alpha-subunit of the calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (alpha-CaMKII) gene was inserted into a beta-galactosidase (beta-gal) reporter plasmid, and beta-gal activities were examined in neuroblastoma (NB2a) and pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells after transient or stable transfections. The alpha-CaMKII promoter was 12- to 45-fold more active in NB2a compared wit...

The PC12 line of nerve growth factor (NGF)-responsive rat pheochromocytoma cells was used as a model system to determine whether properties of microtubules change during neurite growth and maturation. In the absence of NGF, PC12 cells lack processes. After several days with NGF, PC12 cells begin extending neurites and, by 2-3 wk with NGF, PC12 cells have long (approximately 1 mm), highly branch...

Results In PC12 cells stably expressing rat P2Y1 receptors (PC12P2Y1), but not in wild type PC12 cells (PC12-wt), ADP induced rises in intracellular Ca2+ with half-maximal effects at 15 ± 1.3 μM. In whole-cell patch-clamp recordings, ADP inhibited ICa of PC12-P2Y1 cells (EC50: 6.3 ± 1.7 μM) and of PC12-wt (EC50: 3.8 ± 1.3 μM); this effect was not altered by the P2Y1 antagonist MRS 2216 (1 μM), ...

We have previously reported that 5 copies of the hypoxia response element (HRE) can conditionally regulate brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene expression under hypoxic/ischemic conditions in mice. In the present study, we investigated the controlled expression of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) by HRE under hypoxic conditions and determined the protectiv...

The studies described here characterize abnormalities in the expression of neurofilament (NF) proteins in a clonal rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cell line as compared with normal NF proteins in cultured rat sympathetic neurons (RSNs). Cytoskeletal extracts from PC12 cells grown in the presence (PC12+ cells) or absence (PC12- cells) of nerve growth factor (NGF) and from RSNs grown in the presence ...

Previous studies have shown that in neuronal cells the developmental phenomenon of programmed cell death is an active process, requiring synthesis of both RNA and protein. This presumably reflects a requirement for novel gene products to effect cell death. It is shown here that the death of nerve growth factor-deprived neuronal PC12 cells occurs at the same rate as that of rat sympathetic neuro...

Cells of the rat neuronal line, PC12, adhere well to substrates coated with laminin and type IV collagen, but attach poorly to fibronectin. Adhesion and neurite extension in response to these extracellular matrix proteins are inhibited by Fab fragments of an antiserum (anti-ECMR) that recognizes PC12 cell surface integrin subunits of M~ 120,000, 140,000, and 180,000 (Tomaselli, K. J., C. H. Dam...