EFFECTS OF NOREPINEPHRINE ON THE MORPHOLOGY AND SOME ENZYME ACTIVITIES OF PRIMARY MONOLAYER CULTURES FROM RAT BRAIN |
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Authors: | S. Narumi H. K. Kimelberg R. S. Bourke |
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Affiliation: | Division of Neurosurgery, Albany Medical College, Albany, NY 12208, U.S.A |
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Abstract: | Addition of norepinephrine or isoproterenol to primary cultures started from the brains of 1-3 day old rats caused up to 200-fold increases in cAMP levels, which reached a maximum by 5-10 min and then declined. This effect was studied in detail for norepinephrine. The rise in cAMP levels was followed by morphological changes, in which up to 65% of the cells exhibited an astrocyte-like morphology, and 2-3 fold increases in carbonic anhydrase and (Na+-K+) ATPase activities. However, morphological transformation also occurred after much smaller increases in total cAMP levels. These effects on cell morphology and enzyme activities reached a maximum 1-2 h after addition of norepinephrine and then declined. Carbonic anhydrase activity was found both in the particulate and post 100,000 g supernatant fractions from homogenates of these cultured cells, and in the latter case the activity was activated 3-fold by addition of cAMP. The significance of these obscrvations on the cellular localization of, and functional role for similar increases in cAMP in brain tissue is discussed. |
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