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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 8|pp 7397—7410

c-Mpl and TPO expression in the human central nervous system neurons inhibits neuronal apoptosis

Liang Li1, Chenju Yi1, WenJie Xia2, Bihui Huang1, Shichao Chen1, Junyan Zhong1, Xiaoyi Fang1, Liuming Yang3, Hongwu Xin3, Shiying Silvia Zheng4,5, Beng H Chong4,5, Yingyun Fu6, Chun Chen1, Mo Yang1,3
  • 1The Seventh Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
  • 2Guangzhou Blood Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
  • 3Lianjiang People’s Hospital, Lianjiang, Guangdong, China
  • 4St. George and Sutherland Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Kogarah, NSW, Australia
  • 5Department of Haematology, St. George Hospital, Kogarah, NSW, Australia
  • 6Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Shenzhen People’s Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
* Equal contribution
Received: November 11, 2019Accepted: April 13, 2020Published: April 27, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103086

Copyright © 2020 Li et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Thrombopoietin (TPO) is a growth factor for the megakaryocytic/platelet lineage. In this study, we investigated the expression of TPO and its receptor, c-Mpl, in the human central nervous system (CNS) and their roles after a neural insult. Our results demonstrate that both TPO and c-Mpl are expressed in the neurons of the human CNS. TPO was also detected in human cerebrospinal fluid. TPO was found to be neuroprotective in hypoxic-ischemic neonatal rat brain models. In these rat models, treatment with TPO reduced brain damage and improved sensorimotor functions. In addition, TPO promoted C17.2 cell proliferation through activation of the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway. Via the Bcl-2/BAX signaling pathway, TPO exerted an antiapoptotic effect by suppressing mitochondrial membrane potentials. Taken together, our results indicate that TPO is neuroprotective in the CNS.