N-type calcium channel in the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

ABSTRACT: One of the family of voltage-gated calcium channels (VGCC), the N-type Ca(2+) channel, is located predominantly in neurons and is associated with a variety of neuronal responses, including neurodegeneration. A precise mechanism for how the N-type Ca(2+) channel plays a role in neurodegenerative disease, however, is unknown. In this study, we immunized N-type Ca(2+) channel α(1B)-deficient (α(1B)(-/-)) mice and their wild type (WT) littermates with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein 35-55 and analyzed the progression of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The neurological symptoms of EAE in the α(1B)(-/-) mice were less severe than in the WT mice. In conjunction with these results, sections of the spinal cord (SC) from α(1B)(-/-) mice revealed a reduction in both leukocytic in

SUBMITTER: Tokuhara N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2963360 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature