Collaborating on studies of subchronic daily intoxication in juvenile and adult rats, we examined whether the repetitive ethanol treatments at these two life stages altered levels of key neuroinflammation-associated proteins—aquaporin-4 (AQP4), certain phospholipase A2 (PLA2) enzymes, PARP-1 and caspase-3—in hippocampus (HC) and entorhinal cortex (EC). Significant changes in the proteins could implicate activation of specific neuroinflammatory signaling pathways in these rats as well as in severely binge-intoxicated adult animals that are reported to incur degeneration of vulnerable neurons in HC and EC.
Male Wistar rats, ethanol-intoxicated (3 g/kg i.p.) once daily for 6 days over an 8-day interval beginning at 37 days old and repeated at age 68–75 days, were sacrificed 1 h after the day 75 dose (blood ethanol, 200– 230 mg/dl).
Analysis of HC with an immunoblot technique showed that AQP4, Ca+2-dependent PLA2 (cPLA2 IVA), phosphorylated (activated) p-cPLA2, cleaved (89 kD) PARP (c-PARP), and caspase-3 levels were significantly elevated over controls, whereas Ca+2-independent PLA2 (iPLA2 VIA) was reduced ∼70%; however, cleaved caspase-3 was undetectable.
In the EC, AQP4 was unchanged, but cPLA2 and p-cPLA2 were significantly increased while iPLA2 levels were diminished (∼40%) similar to HC, although just outside statistical significance (p = 0.06). In addition, EC levels of PARP-1 and c-PARP were significantly increased.
The ethanol-induced activation of cPLA2 in association with reduced iPLA2 mirrors PLA2 changes in reports of neurotrauma and also of dietary omega-3 fatty acid depletion.
Furthermore, the robust PARP-1 elevations accompanied by negligible caspase-3 activation indicate that repetitive ethanol intoxication may be potentiating non-apoptotic neurodegenerative processes such as parthanatos.
Overall, the repetitive ethanol treatments appeared to instigate previously unappreciated neuroinflammatory pathways in vivo.
The data provide insights into mechanisms of binge ethanol abuse that might suggest new therapeutic approaches to counter neurodegeneration and dementia.
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