PREVENTION FROM HYPOXIA-INDUCED APOPTOSIS BY PRECONDITIONING - A MECHANISTIC APPROACH IN CULTURED NEURONS FROM FETAL-RAT FOREBRAIN

Molecular effects of pre-conditioning by 1-h hypoxia were investigated in cultured neurons from fetal rat forebrain, submitted the following day to a 6-h hypoxia that induces apoptosis. While preventing from ap optosis, pre-conditioning led to increased number of living neurons, D NA synthesis, with persistent overexpression of Bcl-2 and proliferatin g cell nuclear antigen (PCNA). Adaptative mechanisms would involve ant i-apoptotic proteins and regulators of the cell cycle, to finally prom ote neuronal proliferation. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.