Effect of somatostatin on MMP-9 expression.

<p>(A) Zymographyc analysis of cell culture supernatants harvested after 24 hrs of incubation indicate that somatostain administration does not modulate gelatinolytic activity of MMP-9 in each of the experimental conditions. (B) In Western blotting analysis of cell lysates a polyclonal anti-MMP-9 antibody recognizes a single band corresponding to the pro-MMP-9 (92 kDa) which is not modulated over each experimental condition. Analysis of β-tubulin represents the internal control. The results presented are the means ± ES of three indipendent experiments in triplicate, n = 9.</p

Somatostatin induces an increase of IDE expression in microglia cells.

<p>Western blot analysis of normalized lysis samples from rat primary microglia (A) and BV-2 (B) indicates that IDE level increases after 24 hrs of somatostatin incubation, while the internal control ß-tubulin is constant. The additional incubation with sst after 6 hrs from first round strengthens the effect on IDE expression (left panel). Densitometric analysis of IDE WB signals, average ± ES of 5 independent experiments in triplicate (right panel). *P<0.05, one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey's test, n = 15.</p

Somatostatin regulates IDE activity enhancing IDE-dependent Aβ degradation.

<p>(A) BV-2 cells transfected with a specific IDE siRNA pool show reduced levels of IDE protein, compared to cells transfected with a nonspecific control siRNA pool (right panel). (B) Aβ(1–40) quantification through sandwich ELISA reveals that the levels of Aβ are drastically reduced in the presence of IDE steady level (grey columns) compared to IDE-silencing samples (white columns). The results presented are the means ± ES of three independent experiments in triplicate. P<0.05, one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey's test, n = 9. *Significantly different from internal control. ⁺Significantly different from silenced sample in the absence of somatostatin. ^×Significantly different from not-silenced sample in the absence of somatostatin.</p

Somatostatin analogue octreotide increases IDE expression and secretion.

<p>(A) WB (left panel) and densitometric analysis of IDE (right panel) after 24 hrs incubation with the indicated concentrations of octreotide. (B) ELISA analysis on BV-2 medium after octreotide incubation reveals that the sst analogue induces IDE secretion. In every case, the results presented are the means ± ES of four independent experiments in triplicate. * P<0.05, oneway ANOVA, followed by Tukey's test, n = 12.</p

Somatostatin modulation on IDE level in BV-2 cells.

<p>(A) IDE mRNA increases after 5 hrs of incubation with somatostatin (white columns); 24 hrs after incubation, the level is similar to the control (grey columns). Basal mRNA levels were measured by real time PCR in individual preparations of BV2. Data were first normalized against GAPDH and then expressed setting the value measured in controls at 1. The results presented are the means ± ES (B) Elisa analysis of conditioned medium indicates that IDE level increases in BV-2 cells after 24 hrs of incubation as a function of somatostatin concentration. The results presented are the means ± SEs of five independent experiments in triplicate. P<0.05, one-way ANOVA, followed by Tukey's test, n = 15.</p

Endogenous erythropoietin as part of the cytokine network in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Erythropoietin (EPO) is of great interest as a therapy for many of the central nervous system (CNS) diseases and its administration is protective in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis (MS). Endogenous EPO is induced by hypoxic/ischemic injury, but little is known about its expression in other CNS diseases. We report here that EPO expression in the spinal cord is induced in mouse models of chronic or relapsing-remitting EAE, and is prominently localized to motoneurons. We found a parallel increase of hypoxia-inducible transcription factor (HIF)-1 alpha, but not HIF-2 alpha, at the mRNA level, suggesting a possible role of non-hypoxic factors in EPO induction. EPO mRNA in the spinal cord was co-expressed with interferon (IFN)-gamma and tumor necrosis factor (TNF), and these cytokines inhibited EPO production in vitro in both neuronal and glial cells. Given the known inhibitory effect of EPO on neuroinflammation, our study indicates that EPO should be viewed as part of the inflammatory/anti-inflammatory network in MS