Increased expression of Gem after rat sciatic nerve injury

• DOI: 10.1007/s10735-012-9459-2
• Publication Date: 2012-10-17T18:10:15Z
• Authors: Youhua Wang; Xinghai Cheng; Zhengming Zhou; Hao Wu; Long Long; Xingxing Gu; Guangfei Xu
• Keywords: Male; 0301 basic medicine; Protein Transport; 03 medical and health sciences; Peripheral Nerve Injuries; Animals; Schwann Cells; Sciatic Neuropathy; Sciatic Nerve; Cell Proliferation; Monomeric GTP-Binding Proteins; Rats

Gem belongs to the Rad/Gem/Kir subfamily of Ras-related GTPases, whose expression is induced in several cell types upon activation by extracellular stimuli. Two functions of Gem have been demonstrated, including regulation of voltage-gated calcium channel activity and inhibition of Rho kinase-mediated cytoskeletal reorganization, such as stress fiber formation and neurite retraction. Because of the essential relationship between actin reorganization and peripheral nerve regeneration, we investigated the spatiotemporal expression of Gem in a rat sciatic nerve crush (SNC) model. After never injury, we observed that Gem had a significant up-regulation from 1 day, peaked at day 5 and then gradually decreased to the normal level. At its peak expression, Gem expressed mainly in Schwann cells (SCs) and macrophages of the distal sciatic nerve segment, but had few colocalization in axons. In addition, the peak expression of Gem was in parallel with PCNA, and numerous SCs expressing Gem were PCNA positive. Thus, all of our findings suggested that Gem may be involved in the pathophysiology of sciatic nerve after SNC.