Involvement of dysregulated Wip1 in manganese-induced p53 signaling and neuronal apoptosis

• Wip1 is downregulated in Mn-exposed rat striatum.
• Downregulated Wip1 contributes to p53 signaling following Mn exposure.
• Overexpression of Wip1 ameliorates Mn-induced p53 signaling and neuronal apoptosis.
• Depletion of Wip1 augments Mn-mediated cytotoxic effect of Mn.

Overexposure to manganese (Mn) has been known to induce neuronal death and neurodegenerative symptoms. However, the precise mechanisms underlying Mn neurotoxicity remain incompletely understood. In the present study, we established a Mn-exposed rat model and found that downregulation of wild type p53-induced phosphatase 1 (Wip1) might contribute to p53 activation and resultant neuronal apoptosis following Mn exposure. Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses revealed that the expression of Wip1 was markedly decreased following Mn exposure. In addition, immunofluorescence assay demonstrated that Mn exposure led to significant reduction in the number of Wip1-positive neurons. Accordingly, the expression of Mdm2 was progressively decreased, which was accompanied with markedly increased expression of p53, as well as the ratio of Bax/Bcl-xl. Furthermore, we showed that Mn exposure decreased the viability and induced apparent apoptosis in NFG-differentiated neuron-like PC12 cells. Importantly, the expression of Wip1 decreased progressively, whereas the level of cellular p53 and the ratio of Bax/Bcl-xl were elevated, which resembled the expression of the proteins in animal model studies. Depletion of p53 significantly ameliorated Mn-mediated cytotoxic effect in PC12 cells. In addition, ectopic expression of Wip1 attenuated Mn-induced p53 signaling as well as apoptosis in PC12 cells. Finally, we observed that depletion of Wip1 augmented Mn-induced apoptosis in PC12 cells. Collectively, these findings suggest that downregulated Wip1 expression plays an important role in Mn-induced neuronal death in the brain striatum via the modulation of p53 signaling.