Heterogeneity of microglial proton channel in different brain regions and its relationship with aging

AbstractThe properties of microglia largely differ depending on aging as well as on brain regions. However, there are few studies that investigated the functional importance of such heterogeneous properties of microglia at molecular level. Voltage ‐gated proton channel, Hv1/VSOP, could be one of the candidates which confers functional heterogeneity among microglia, since it regulates brain oxidative stress in age‐dependent manner. In the present study, we found that Hv1/VSOP shows brain region‐dependent heterogeneity of gene expression with highest level in striatum. We studied the importance of Hv1/VSOP in two different brain regions, cerebral cortex and striatum, and examined their relationship with aging (using mice with different ages). In cortex, we observed the age‐dependent impact of Hv1/VSOP on oxidative stress, microgli al morphology, and gene expression profile. On the other hand, we found that the age‐dependent significance of Hv1/VSOP was less obvious in striatum than cortex. Finally, we performed a battery of behavioral experiments on Hv1/VSOP‐deficient mice both at young and aged stages to examine the effe ct of aging on Hv1/VSOP function. Hv1/VSOP‐deficient mice specifically showed marked difference in behavior in light/dark transition test only at aged stages, indicating that anxiety state is altered in aged Hv1/VSOP mice. The present study suggests that combination of brain region heterogeneity a nd animal aging underscores the functional import...
Source: Journal of Neurochemistry - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research