Citation

Choi YK, Maki T, Mandeville ET, Koh SH, Hayakawa K, Arai K, Kim YM, Whalen MJ, Xing C, Wang X, Kim KW, Lo EH. Nat. Med. 2016; 22(11): 1335-1341.

Affiliation

Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1038/nm.4188

PMID

27668935

Abstract

At low levels, carbon monoxide (CO) has physiological roles as a second messenger and neuromodulator. Here we assess the effects of CO in a mouse model of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Treatment with CO-releasing molecule (CORM)-3 reduced pericyte death and ameliorated the progression of neurological deficits. In contrast, although treatment with the radical scavenger N-tert-butyl-a-phenylnitrone (PBN) also reduced pericyte death, neurological outcomes were not rescued. As compared to vehicle-treated control and PBN-treated mice, CORM-3-treated mice showed higher levels of phosphorylated neural nitric oxide synthase within neural stem cells (NSCs). Inhibition of nitric oxide synthase diminished the CORM-3-mediated increase in the number of cells that stained positive for both the neuronal marker NeuN and 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU; a marker for proliferating cells) in vivo, consequently interfering with neurological recovery after TBI. Because NSCs seemed to be in close proximity to pericytes, we asked whether cross-talk between pericytes and NSCs was induced by CORM-3, thereby promoting neurogenesis. In pericyte cultures that were undergoing oxygen and glucose deprivation, conditioned cell culture medium collected after CORM-3 treatment enhanced the in vitro differentiation of NSCs into mature neurons. Taken together, these findings suggest that CO treatment may provide a therapeutic approach for TBI by preventing pericyte death, rescuing cross-talk with NSCs and promoting neurogenesis.

Language: en