Hormonal Influence on the Proliferation Potential of C17.2 Neuronal Progenitor Cells

Sammanfattning: The brain is arguably the most complex organ of the body: Controlling muscles, maintaining homeostasis, processing information. It has the longest developmental period of any organ, and hormones are essential during its development. Endocrine disruptive chemicals can disturb hormones in any part of their signaling pathway and can act as agonists or antagonists on their receptors. Should the balance of stem cell or progenitor cell proliferation be skewed in any direction during early brain development, it may lead to cognitive disfunctions or diseases. In this study, v-myc induced mouse-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs) were exposed to retinoid and glucocorticoid receptor agonists and antagonists to investigate the involvement of these pathways on NPC proliferation. NPCs were exposed for 24 hours, after which they were read in a Tecan. Statistical analyses revealed that no treatment yielded statistically significant responses, however in the case for mifepristone (glucocorticoid receptor antagonist), dexamethasone (glucocorticoid receptor agonist) and Agn (retinoid receptor antagonist), a small negative response trend could be observed. Cell viability analyses also revealed that the concentrations of chemicals did not induce cytotoxicity. The unexpectedly high and variable data suggest errors were made during the seeding of the 96-well microplates. In conclusion, these findings suggest that with further development, this in vitro method could be used in conjunction with other in vitro models for the assessment of neurodevelopmental toxicity and for identification of EDCs in the future.