Effect of aging on neuroglobin expression in rodent brain

• DOI: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2004.03.006
• Publication Date: 2004-05-31T11:09:05Z
• Authors: Yunjuan Sun; Kunlin Jin; Xiao Ou Mao; Lin Xie; Alyson Peel; Jocelyn T. Childs; Anna Logvinova; Xiaojuan Wang; David A. Greenberg
• Keywords: Male; Aging; 0303 health sciences; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; Blotting, Western; Age Factors; Brain; Neuroglobin; Nerve Tissue Proteins; Blotting, Northern; Immunohistochemistry; Globins; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Gene Expression Regulation; Animals; RNA, Messenger

Neuroglobin (Ngb), a recently discovered O2-binding heme protein related to hemoglobin and myoglobin, protects neurons from hypoxic-ischemic injury in vitro and in vivo. In immunostained mouse brain sections, we found widespread expression of Ngb protein in neurons, but not astrocytes, of several brain regions that are prominently involved in age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Western blots from young adult (3 month), middle-aged (12 month), and aged (24 month) rats showed an age-related decline in Ngb expression in cerebral neocortex, hippocampus, caudate-putamen, and cerebellum. Loss of this neuroprotective protein may have a role in increasing susceptibility to age-related neurological disorders.