Protein kinase C in central auditory pathways of the rat

Abstract

Protein kinase C is an important intracellular signaling molecule. Many of its ten isoforms are highly expressed in brain, and protein kinase C has been implicated in the regulation of the activity of receptors of several major neurotransmitters, including glutamate, acetylcholine, glycine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid. These neurotransmitters and their receptors are present in central auditory pathways, suggesting their role in auditory signal processing. Although they may be important modulators of the function of these neurotransmitter receptors, the distribution of protein kinase C isoforms in central auditory systems has not been well characterized. By using immunocytochemistry with specific antibodies, we studied the distribution of immunoreactivity of four isoforms of protein kinase C, betaI, betaII, gamma, and gamma, in central auditory systems of rat brain. Each of these protein kinase C isoforms was found to have a unique distribution in the auditory brainstem and cortex, supporting a role for these isoforms of protein kinase C in different aspects of auditory sensory processing.

Chemical divisions in the medial geniculate body and surrounding paralaminar nuclei of the rat: quantitative comparison of cell density, NADPH diaphorase, acetyl cholin esterase and basal expression of c-fos

“…From our results, DD is significantly different from the SG and the MGm. Moreover, protein kinase C-d immunoreactivity is clearly poor in the DD area, and dense in the SG area (Garcia and Harlan, 1997, see its Fig. 17A).…”

Noise-induced hearing loss is correlated with alterations in the expression of GABAB receptors and PKC gamma in the murine cochlear nucleus complex

“…Finally, unlike other types of cells in the DCN, it has been demonstrated that cartwheel cells express PKCγ specifically. (Garcia and Harlan, 1997). According to these features, the cartwheel cell could be identified (Idrizbegovic et al, 2004; Kou et al, 2011).…”

“…Noise stimulation could increase the activity of GABA-containing cartwheel cells in the DCN (Brozoski et al, 2002; Chang et al, 2002). In addition, PKCγ is specifically expressed in cartwheel cells (Garcia and Harlan, 1997). In our study, we found that 85.95% of PKCγ-positive neurons coexpressed GAD67 and GABA B R1s, indicating that the selective increase in PKCγ expression may serve as a noise injury-induced intracellular modulator in the subpopulation of GABA/GABA B R1/PKCγ cartwheel cells in the DCN (Figure 7).…”

Immunolocalization of PICK1 in the ascending auditory pathways of the adult rat

“…Many glutamatergic synapses of various receptor subunit compositions have been characterized in the central auditory system, making this system a good model system to investigate the distribution of PSD proteins. Both PKC isozymes (Garcia and Harlan, 1997; Garcia et al, 2000) and glutamate receptors (Petralia et al, 2000) are expressed in the central auditory system and function in synaptic transmission and plasticity. Inhibition of PKC isozymes attenuates sound‐induced Fos expression in both the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (CIC) and in primary auditory cortex (Au1), implicating PKC in auditory signal processing (McInvale et al, 1999).…”