Long-term treatment of aggregating brain cell cultures with low concentrations of lead acetate
Zurich, M.G.; Monnet-Tschudi, F.; Honegger, P.
Neurotoxicology 15(3): 715-719
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0161-813X PMID: 7854611 Document Number: 432089
Aggregating brain cell cultures were used as a model to study the effect of chronic exposure to low levels of lead acetate. Long-term maintenance of cultures could be improved by supplementation of the medium with albumin-bound lipids. Exposure for 9 days to 10(-6)-10(-4) M lead acetate caused a decrease of GABAergic (glutamic acid decarboxylase) and astrocytic (glutamine synthetase) markers which was also found after prolonged treatment (50 days) with 10(-7) M lead acetate. Total protein content and choline acetyltransferase were not changed. The results show that prolonged exposure of aggregating brain cell cultures to a low concentration of lead acetate causes distinct changes of cell type-specific parameters.