α7 Nicotinic Receptor Promotes the Neuroprotective Functions of Astrocytes against Oxaliplatin Neurotoxicity

Figure 1

Oxaliplatin toxicity in mono- and cocultures. (a) Cell viability. Neuron monoculture (10⁴ cells/well), astrocyte monoculture (10⁴ cells/well), and neuron astrocyte coculture (2 10⁵ neurons/well and 8 10⁴ astrocytes/well) were incubated with oxaliplatin (0.3–100 μM) for 48 h. Viability of neurons in coculture was quantified by MTT assay and compared with the viability of neurons or astrocytes in monoculture. Values are expressed in percentage of control absorbance (0 oxaliplatin) as mean ± S.E.M. of 6 experiments. Control condition absorbance was fixed to 100%. versus control. (b) Caspase-3 activity. Neuron monoculture (7 10⁵ cells/well) or neuron astrocyte coculture (7 10⁵ neurons/well and 4.5 10⁵ astrocytes/well) was incubated with oxaliplatin (0.3–100 μM) for 48 h. The enzymatic activity of neuronal component of the coculture was compared to that of neuron monocultures. The enzymatic activity was measured by a fluorescent assay. Values are expressed as percent of control caspase-3 activity arbitrarily set as 100%. Bars represent mean ± S.E.M. of 3 experiments. One-way ANOVA was performed followed by a Bonferroni significant difference procedure. and versus control.

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