Transient ischemia-induced change of CCR7 immunoreactivity in neurons and its new expression in astrocytes in the gerbil hippocampus

Chemokines and their receptors are important players in organism homeostasis, development and immune response to inflammatory stimuli. In the present study, we examined effects of ischemia-reperfusion injury on the immunoreactivity and protein levels of chemokine C-C motif receptor 7 (CCR7) in the gerbil hippocampus (CA1-3 regions) after 5 min of transient global cerebral ischemia. CCR7 immunoreactivity was dramatically changed in the pyramidal neurons of the CA1, not CA2/3, region after ischemia-reperfusion. The immunoreactivity was increased after ischemia-reperfusion, and it was barely found from 5 days post-ischemia. In addition, CCR7 immunoreactivity was newly expressed in astrocytes, not microglia, in the ischemic CA1 region from 5 days post-ischemia. However, we did not observe this finding in the ischemic CA2/3 region. Furthermore, CCR7 protein levels in the ischemic CA1 region were changed like the change pattern of its immunoreactivity. These results indicate that both CCR7 immunoreactivity and protein levels are distinctively altered only in the CA1 region after transient cerebral ischemia and that the changes in CCR7 expression may be related to the ischemia-induced delayed neuronal death.