Prevention of methylmercury-induced mitochondrial depolarization, glutathione depletion and cell death by 15-deoxy-delta-12,14-prostaglandin J2

Methylmercury (MeHg) is an environmental toxin that causes severe neurological complications in humans and experimental animals. In addition to neurons, glia in the central nervous system are very susceptible to MeHg toxicity. Pretreatment of glia with the prostaglandin derivative, 15-deoxy-delta-12,14-prostaglandin J2 (15d-PGJ2), caused a significant protection against MeHg cytotoxicity. Results with the C6 glioma cells demonstrated that the protection was dependent on the duration of pretreatment, suggesting that time was required for the up-regulation of cellular defenses. Subsequent experiments indicated that 15d-PGJ2 prevented MeHg induced mitochondrial depolarization. Similar protection against MeHg cytotoxicity was observed in primary cultures of mouse glia. Analysis of cellular glutathione (GSH) levels indicated that 15d-PGJ2 caused an up-regulation of GSH and prevented MeHg-induced GSH depletion. Buthionine sulfoximine (BSO), a GSH synthesis inhibitor, completely inhibited the GSH induction by 15d-PGJ2. However, BSO did not prevent the stabilization of mitochondrial potential and only partially prevented the protection caused by 15d-PGJ2. While induction of heme oxygenase-1 was implicated in the cytoprotection by 15d-PGJ2 under some experimental conditions, additional experiments indicated that this enzyme was not involved in the cytoprotection observed in this system. Together, these results suggested that while up-regulation of GSH by 15d-PGJ2 might help cells to defend against MeHg toxicity, there may be other yet unidentified mechanism(s) initiated by 15d-PGJ2 treatment that contributed to its protection against MeHg cytotoxicity.