Publications by authors named "Eva Maria Luther"

To develop treatments for neurodegenerative disorders, it is critical to understand the biology and function of neurons in both normal and diseased states. Molecular studies of neurons involve the delivery of small biomolecules into cultured neurons via transfection to study genetic variants. However, as cultured primary neurons are sensitive to temperature change, stress, and shifts in pH, these factors make biomolecule delivery difficult, particularly non-viral delivery. Herein we used oscillating nanomagnetic gene transfection to successfully transfect SH-SY5Y cells as well as primary hippocampal and cortical neurons on different days in vitro. This novel technique has been used to effectively deliver genetic material into various cell types, resulting in high transfection efficiency and viability. From these observations and other related studies, we suggest that oscillating nanomagnetic gene transfection is an effective method for gene delivery into hard-to-transfect neuronal cell types.

Inorganic arsenicals are environmental toxins that have been connected with neuropathies and impaired cognitive functions. To investigate whether such substances accumulate in brain astrocytes and affect their viability and glutathione metabolism, we have exposed cultured primary astrocytes to arsenite or arsenate. Both arsenicals compromised the cell viability of astrocytes in a time- and concentration-dependent manner. However, the early onset of cell toxicity in arsenite-treated astrocytes revealed the higher toxic potential of arsenite compared with arsenate. The concentrations of arsenite and arsenate that caused within 24h half-maximal release of the cytosolic enzyme lactate dehydrogenase were around 0.3mM and 10mM, respectively. The cellular arsenic contents of astrocytes increased rapidly upon exposure to arsenite or arsenate and reached after 4h of incubation almost constant steady state levels. These levels were about 3-times higher in astrocytes that had been exposed to a given concentration of arsenite compared with the respective arsenate condition. Analysis of the intracellular arsenic species revealed that almost exclusively arsenite was present in viable astrocytes that had been exposed to either arsenate or arsenite. The emerging toxicity of arsenite 4h after exposure was accompanied by a loss in cellular total glutathione and by an increase in the cellular glutathione disulfide content. These data suggest that the high arsenite content of astrocytes that had been exposed to inorganic arsenicals causes an increase in the ratio of glutathione disulfide to glutathione which contributes to the toxic potential of these substances.