Stage dependent effects of progesterone on motoneurons and glial cells of wobbler mouse spinal cord degeneration

MEYER M; GONZALEZ DENISELLE MC; GARAY L; GARGIULO MONACHELLI, G.M; LIMA A; ROIG P; GUENNOUN R; SCHUMACHER M; DE NICOLA A. F.

CELLULAR AND MOLECULAR NEUROBIOLOGY.

SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS

Año: 2010 vol. 30 p. 123 - 135

0272-4340

In the Wobbler mouse, a mutation in the Vps54 gene is accompanied by motoneuron degeneration and astrogliosis in the cervical spinal cord. Previous work has shown that these abnormalitie s are greatly attenuated by progesterone treatment of clinically afflicted Wobblers. However, whether progesterone is effective at all disease stages has not yet been tested. The present work used genotyped (wr/wr) Wobbler mice at three periods of the disease: early progressive (1?2 months), established (5? 8 months) or late stages (12 months) and age-matched wildtype controls (NFR/NFR), half of which were implanted with a progesterone pellet (20 mg) for 18 days. In untreated Wobblers, degenerating vacuolated motoneurons were initially abundant, experienced a slight reduction at the established stage and dramatically diminished during the late period. In motoneurons, the cholinergic marker choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) was reduced at all stages of the Wobbler disease, whereas hyperexpression of the growth-associated protein (GAP43) mRNA preferentially occurred at the early progressive and established stages