Blunted Neuronal Calcium Response to Hypoxia in Naked Mole-Rat Hippocampus
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1
University of Illinois at Chicago, Biological Sciences, United States
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2
University of Illinois at Chicago, Psychiatry, United States
Naked mole-rats are highly social subterranean rodents that live in large communal colonies in sealed and chronically oxygen-depleted burrows. Brain slices from naked mole-rats show extreme tolerance to hypoxia compared to slices from other mammals, as indicated by maintenance of synaptic transmission under more hypoxic conditions, and three-fold longer latency to anoxic depolarization. A key factor in determining whether or not the cellular response to hypoxia is reversible or leads to cell death is the elevation of intracellular calcium concentration. In the present study, we used fluorescent imaging techniques to measure intracellular calcium accumulation in CA1 pyramidal cells of hippocampal slices during hypoxia. We found that calcium accumulation during hypoxia was significantly and substantially attenuated in slices from naked mole-rats compared to slices from laboratory mice. This was the case for both neonatal (P6) and older (P20) age groups. Furthermore, while both species demonstrated more calcium accumulation at older ages, the older naked mole-rats showed a smaller calcium response than even the neonatal mice. The attenuation of the calcium response in naked mole-rat hippocampus appears to be specifically related to hypoxia tolerance since the calcium response to potassium depolarization was much more similar for naked mole-rats and mice (no significant difference at P20). The data suggest that blunted intracellular calcium response to hypoxia contributes to the extreme hypoxia tolerance of naked mole-rat neurons. The results are discussed in terms of a general hypothesis that a very prolonged or arrested developmental process may allow adult naked mole-rat brain to retain the hypoxia tolerance normally only seen in neonatal mammals.
Keywords:
Calcium,
hypoxia,
mole-rat,
NMDA
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster (but consider for student poster award)
Topic:
Cellular Properties
Citation:
Peterson
B,
Park
T and
Larson
J
(2012). Blunted Neuronal Calcium Response to Hypoxia in Naked Mole-Rat Hippocampus.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00094
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Received:
20 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Thomas Park, University of Illinois at Chicago, Biological Sciences, Chicago, IL, 60607, United States, tpark@uic.edu