Metallothioneins (MTs) are
metal-
binding proteins and have four
isoforms.
MT-III was, at first, found in the brains of patients with
Alzheimer's disease.
MT-III exists mainly in the central nervous system, and the main effects are thought to be anti-oxidative and regulate
zinc levels. In some previous reports,
MT-III exhibited
neuroprotective effects in various pathological situations, but its detailed effects are still unclear. In the present study, we examined neuronal damage after a
middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in
MT-III knockout (KO) mice to elucidate the relationship between
MT-III and
cerebral infarction. There was no significant difference in
cerebral infarction after 24-h permanent MCAO between the wild-type and
MT-III KO mice. On the other hand, after 2-h MCAO and 22-h reperfusion,
cerebral infarction in the
MT-III KO mice was aggravated compared with the wild-type mice. Furthermore, fatal rate of
MT-III KO mice increased from 3 days after MCAO, and neurological deficits at 5 and 7 days after MCAO of
MT-III KO mice were worse than those of wild-type. We examined
terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining and the immunostaining of an oxidative stress marker,
8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), at 24 h after transient MCAO. In the penumbra lesion, the positive cell numbers in both staining assays were higher in the
MT-III KO mice than those of the wild-type mice. These findings indicate that neuronal damage was aggravated by
reperfusion injury in the
MT-III KO mice compared with the wild-type mice, suggesting that
MT-III plays anti-oxidative and neuroprotective roles in
transient cerebral ischemia.