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Failure of Ca 2+ ‐activated, CREB‐dependent transcription in astrocytes
Author(s) -
Murray Peter D.,
Kingsbury Tami J.,
Krueger Bruce K.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
glia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.954
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1098-1136
pISSN - 0894-1491
DOI - 10.1002/glia.20809
Subject(s) - creb , biology , transcription factor , transcription (linguistics) , microbiology and biotechnology , response element , activating transcription factor , phosphorylation , cyclic amp response element binding protein , activating transcription factor 2 , gene expression , promoter , gene , biochemistry , linguistics , philosophy
Astrocytes participate in signaling via Ca 2+ transients that spread from cell to cell across a multicellular syncytium. The effect, if any, of these Ca 2+ waves on the transcription of Ca 2+ /cAMP‐regulatory element binding protein (CREB)‐dependent genes is not known. We report here that, unlike neurons, increasing intracellular Ca 2+ in cultured mouse cortical astrocytes failed to activate CREB‐dependent transcription, even though CREB was phosphorylated at serine 133. In contrast, both CREB phosphorylation and CREB‐dependent transcription were robustly stimulated by increasing cAMP. The failure of Ca 2+ ‐activated transcription in astrocytes was correlated with the absence of CaMKIV, a Ca 2+ ‐dependent protein kinase required for Ca 2+ ‐stimulated gene transcription in neurons. The inability of Ca 2+ to signal via CaMKIV may insulate CREB‐dependent gene transcription in astrocytes from activation by Ca 2+ waves. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.