Light-at-night exposure affects brain development through pineal allopregnanolone-dependent mechanisms.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31566568.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.45306 and PMC identifier 6850767.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The molecular mechanisms by which environmental light conditions affect cerebellar development are incompletely understood. We showed that circadian disruption by light-at-night induced Purkinje cell death through pineal allopregnanolone (ALLO) activity during early life in chicks. Light-at-night caused the loss of diurnal variation of pineal ALLO synthesis during early life and led to cerebellar Purkinje cell death, which was suppressed by a daily injection of ALLO. The loss of diurnal variation of pineal ALLO synthesis induced not only reduction in pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP), a neuroprotective hormone, but also transcriptional repression of the cerebellar <i>Adcyap1</i> gene that produces PACAP, with subsequent Purkinje cell death. Taken together, pineal ALLO mediated the effect of light on early cerebellar development in chicks.
Medical subject headings
- Brain
- Circadian Rhythm
- Light
- Pineal Gland
- Pregnanolone