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Interleukin‐2 increases choline acetyltransferase activity in septal‐cell cultures
Author(s) -
Mennicken Françoise,
Quirion Rémi
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
synapse
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.809
H-Index - 106
eISSN - 1098-2396
pISSN - 0887-4476
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1098-2396(199706)26:2<175::aid-syn8>3.0.co;2-5
Subject(s) - choline acetyltransferase , acetylcholinesterase , cholinergic , acetylcholine , receptor , microbiology and biotechnology , medicine , chemistry , biology , endocrinology , biochemistry , enzyme
Interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) is a potent modulator of in vitro acetylcholine release in hippocampal slices [Hanisch et al. (1993) J. Neurosci., 13:3368]. In order to further investigate the cellular nature of this effect, we used embryonic septal‐cell cultures (E17), known to be enriched with the cholinergic phenotype. Septal cells were grown at different plating densities under serum‐free conditions. The effect of IL‐2 on the expression of the cholinergic phenotype was determined using choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) cytochemistry. IL‐2 significantly enhanced ChAT activity in 5‐day‐old cultures (5 days in vitro). The amplitude of increases correlated with plating density. At 5 × 10 5 cells/well, the increase in ChAT activity was 35–55% greater than control values in the presence of 10 −14 –10 −10 M IL‐2, whereas at 7.5 × 10 5 cells/well, this increase was substantially lower (20%) and only observed at concentrations between 10 −13 –10 −11 M. At 10 6 cells/well, IL‐2 had no effect on ChAT activity. The IL‐2 receptor antibody. Moreover, this increase was not dependent upon trophic actions, as the number of AChE‐positive cells or their morphological characteristics were not altered by IL‐2. Taken together, these results suggest that IL‐2 can stimulate, at pM concentrations, ChAT activity by acting via its own receptors expressed by septal neurons. Synapse 26:175–183, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.