Prosaposin and its receptors GRP37 and GPR37L1 show increased immunoreactivity in the facial nucleus following facial nerve transection.

ABSTRACT: Neurotrophic factor prosaposin (PS) is a precursor for saposins A, B, C, and D, which are activators for specific sphingolipid hydrolases in lysosomes. Both saposins and PS are widely contained in various tissues. The brain, skeletal muscle, and heart cells predominantly contain unprocessed PS rather than saposins. PS and PS-derived peptides stimulate neuritogenesis and increase choline acetyltransferase activity in neuroblastoma cells and prevent programmed cell death in neurons. We previously detected increases in PS immunoactivity and its mRNA in the rat facial nucleus following facial nerve transection. PS mRNA expression increased not only in facial motoneurons, but also in microglia during facial nerve regeneration. In the present study, we examined the changes in immunoreactivity of

SUBMITTER: Kunihiro J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7707515 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature