Kainate-induced apoptosis correlates with c-Jun activation in cultured cerebellar granule cells.

Abstract

We have investigated the involvement of c-Jun in cell death induced by exposure of primary cultures of murine cerebellar granule cells to the glutamate receptor agonist kainate (KA) and evaluated its possible use as a marker for apoptosis. Using cerebellar granule cell neurones from postnatal day 7 mice, we found that 1 hr exposure to KA (1-1000 microM) induced a concentration-dependent neuronal cell death with characteristic apoptotic morphology, including cell shrinkage, neurite blebbing and DNA fragmentation. In addition KA-induced a concentration-dependent expression of c-Jun mRNA and protein as determined by in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry respectively. DNA fragmentation w..