Expression of netrin-1 and its receptors DCC and neogenin in rat brain after ischemia.

It is very important to investigate the mechanism of axonal growth in the ischemic brain in order to consider a novel mean of therapy for stroke. Netrins are chemotropic factors for axon with chemoattractant or chemorepellant guidance activities, and deleted in colorectal cancer (DCC) and neogenin are receptors for netrins. In this study, we examined expressions of netrin-1, DCC, and neogenin in the brain after 90 min of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO). Netrin-1 was expressed in neurons at the peri-ischemic area with a peak at 14 days. DCC was expressed both in neurons and astrocytic feet with a peak at 14 days, though neogenin was expressed in endothelial cells at MCA territory with a peak at the same time point. These results suggest that netrin-1 is involved in the promotion of axonal growth. The expression of netrin-1 and DCC was overlapped both in the spatial and temporal patterns, indicating that DCC plays a role in netrin-1's axonal growth promoting effects. The location of neogenin positive cells differed from that of netrin-1 positive cells, thus its angiogenic activity may not have relevance with netrin-1.