Nestin Positive Cells in the Retina and Spinal Cord of the Sturgeon after Hypoxia

Abstract

Sturgeon is an archaic fish which first evolved 100–200 million years ago and has changed very little morphologically since then. In the current study, we are interested in the effects of hypoxia on the retina and spinal cord of this archaic fish. Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression pattern of nestin, an intermediate neurofilament, after 10 min and 30 min of hypoxia. Our results showed that nestin-expression in these two neural regions are very different. In the normal retina, nestin was widely distributed throughout the retina while it was absent in the normal spinal cord. However, once the sturgeon was exposed to hypoxic condition, even one of short duration, the pattern of nestin expression was reversed and it is now absent in the hypoxic retina but is present in the hypoxic spinal cord. These results suggest that nestin expression, which is usually associated with glial reactivation, may be further influenced by other undetermined factors in this archaic fish.

Keywords:

• Hypoxia
• immunohistochemistry
• nestin
• retina
• spinal cord
• sturgeon