LE3 .A278 2013

2013

Wilson, Brian

Acadia University

Bachelor of Science

Honours

Biology

Biology

Organotypic brain slice culture was used to study the cellular protective effect of relaxin 2 and 3 under oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) stress. The production of the heat shock protein (Hsp) 70, which is highly stress inducible, enhances the ability of cells to effectively inhibit cell death processes and was used as an indicator of cellular stress. Brain slices (400μm) from neonatal rats, at the level of the somatosensory cortex, were cultured for 14 days and divided between 4 treatment groups: normoxic control group (oxygenated balanced salt solution (BBS) with glucose), hypoxic (deoxygenated glucose free-BSS), hypoxic with 10-7 M human relaxin 2 and hypoxic with 10-7 M human relaxin 3. Treatments lasted for one hour and then slices were returned into normal culture conditions and Hsp70 levels in brain tissue were analyzed 1 hour later using a human/mouse/rat total Hsp70 Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit and immunofluorescent staining for the presence of Hsp70. Treatment means were compared using one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey’s post-hoc mean comparison test and were considered significantly different at p<0.05. Relaxin 2/3 treatment groups showed an overall decrease in the production of Hsp70, indicating relaxin peptides might have effects that reduce cellular stress under OGD conditions, however; this result was only significant for relaxin

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:1005