Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Sci. Signal., 8 June 2010
Vol. 3, Issue 125, p. pe20
[DOI: 10.1126/scisignal.3125pe20]

PERSPECTIVES

Eradicating the Mediators of Neuronal Death with a Fine-Tooth Comb

R. Suzanne Zukin*

Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Rose F. Kennedy Center, Room 610, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.

Abstract: Ischemic tolerance is an evolutionarily conserved form of cerebral plasticity in which a brief period of cerebral ischemia (called ischemic preconditioning) confers transient tolerance to a subsequent ischemic challenge in the brain. Polycomb group proteins are gene-silencing factors that are abundant and widely distributed during embryogenesis and are essential to epigenetic cellular memory, pluripotency, and stem cell self-renewal. New insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying ischemic tolerance is highlighted by the finding that ischemic preconditioning activates polycomb proteins in mature neurons. Polycomb proteins act through epigenetic gene silencing to eradicate potential mediators of neuronal death and promote cellular arrest, enabling mature neurons to survive ischemic stroke.

* Corresponding author. E-mail, suzanne.zukin{at}einstein.yu.edu

Citation: R. S. Zukin, Eradicating the Mediators of Neuronal Death with a Fine-Tooth Comb. Sci. Signal. 3, pe20 (2010).

Read the Full Text

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor (REST)-dependent epigenetic remodeling is critical to ischemia-induced neuronal death.
K.-M. Noh, J.-Y. Hwang, A. Follenzi, R. Athanasiadou, T. Miyawaki, J. M. Greally, M. V. L. Bennett, and R. S. Zukin (2012)
PNAS 109, E962-E971
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Can Genes Modify Stroke Outcome and By What Mechanisms?.
R. P. Simon, R. Meller, A. Zhou, and D. Henshall (2012)
Stroke 43, 286-291
   Full Text »    PDF »
The Repressor Element 1-Silencing Transcription Factor Is a Novel Molecular Target for the Neurotoxic Effect of the Polychlorinated Biphenyl Mixture Aroclor 1254 in Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y Cells.
L. Formisano, N. Guida, S. Cocco, A. Secondo, R. Sirabella, L. Ulianich, F. Paturzo, G. Di Renzo, and L. M. T. Canzoniero (2011)
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 338, 997-1003
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Remote Ischemic Preconditioning: Making the Brain More Tolerant, Safely and Inexpensively.
M. A. Moskowitz and C. Waeber (2011)
Circulation 123, 709-711
   Full Text »    PDF »

To Advertise     Find Products

Science Signaling. ISSN 1937-9145 (online), 1945-0877 (print). Pre-2008: Science's STKE. ISSN 1525-8882