The effect of electromagnetic pulses on the glutamate-aspartate transporter (GLAST)and glutamine synthase (GS) in the hippocampus of male rats

The imbalance of inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters in the nervous system causes many brain disorders. Glutamate is the most important excitatory neurotransmitter in the synapses which absorbed by glutamate-aspartate transporter (GLAST) in astrocytes membrane, then it has been converted to glutamine by glutamine synthetize enzyme (GS) Within the cytoplasm and then enters to vesicles.The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of electromagnetic pulses on the expression of GLAST and GS genes and also GS activity, in the hippocampus.Twenty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into control and treatment groups. Treatment group was submitted to daily pulsed electromagnetic field (7 mT, 30 Hz for 16 min daily/ 14 days). Control group submitted to off electromagnetic apparatus. At the end of the experiment, the hippocampus of the mice was extracted. GS activity was measured and GLAST and GS gene expression was evaluated using real time PCR.The level of GS activity in the treatment group was significantly higher than the control group (P≤0.05). However, there was no significant difference in GS gene expression in these two groups. The level of GLAST gene expression did not show any significant difference between the two groups. The 14-day treatment with 30 Hz, 7mT electromagnetic pulses, without affecting the GS gene expression, resulted in increased activity of the glutamine synthase astrocyte enzyme. The treatment was not effective in expressing the carriers of glutamateaspartate astrocytes.

کلیدواژه ها:

Electromagnetic pulse ، Astrocyte ، Glutamine Synthetize ، Glutamate-Aspartate transporter