Research Paper Volume 15, Issue 22 pp 12723—12737

Tat-heat shock protein 10 ameliorates age-related phenotypes by facilitating neuronal plasticity and reducing age-related genes in the hippocampus

Hyo Young Jung1,2, *, , Hyun Jung Kwon3,4, *, , Kyu Ri Hahn1, , Woosuk Kim1,5, , Dae Young Yoo1,6, , Yeo Sung Yoon1, , Dae Won Kim3, , In Koo Hwang1, ,

  • 1 Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Veterinary Medicine, and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, South Korea
  • 2 Department of Veterinary Medicine and Institute of Veterinary Science, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 34134, South Korea
  • 3 Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Research Institute of Oral Sciences, College of Dentistry, Gangneung-Wonju National University, Gangneung 25457, South Korea
  • 4 Department of Biomedical Sciences, and Research Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology, Hallym University, Chuncheon 24252, South Korea
  • 5 Department of Anatomy, College of Veterinary Medicine, and Veterinary Science Research Institute, Konkuk University, Seoul 05030, South Korea
  • 6 Department of Anatomy and Convergence Medical Science, Institute of Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju 52727, South Korea
* Equal contribution

Received: December 13, 2022       Accepted: October 6, 2023       Published: November 25, 2023      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205182
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2023 Jung et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

We investigated the effects of heat shock protein 10 (HSP10) protein on memory function, hippocampal neurogenesis, and other related genes/proteins in adult and aged mice. To translocate the HSP10 protein into the hippocampus, the Tat-HSP10 fusion protein was synthesized, and Tat-HSP10, not HSP10, was successfully delivered into the hippocampus based on immunohistochemistry and western blotting. Tat-HSP10 (0.5 or 2.0 mg/kg) or HSP10 (control protein, 2.0 mg/kg) was administered daily to 3- and 21-month-old mice for 3 months, and observed the senescence maker P16 was significantly increased in aged mice and the treatment with Tat-HSP10 significantly decreased P16 expression in the hippocampus of aged mice. In novel object recognition and Morris water maze tests, aged mice demonstrated decreases in exploratory preferences, exploration time, distance moved, number of object contacts, and escape latency compared to adult mice. Treatment with Tat-HSP10 significantly improved exploratory preferences, the number of object contacts, and the time spent swimming in the target quadrant in aged mice but not adults. Administration of Tat-HSP10 increased the number of proliferating cells and differentiated neuroblasts in the dentate gyrus of adult and aged mice compared to controls, as determined by immunohistochemical staining for Ki67 and doublecortin, respectively. Additionally, Tat-HSP10 treatment significantly mitigated the reduction in sirtuin 1 mRNA level, N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor 1, and postsynaptic density 95 protein levels in the hippocampus of aged mice. In contrast, Tat-HSP10 treatment significantly increased sirtuin 3 protein levels in both adult and aged mouse hippocampus. These suggest that Tat-HSP10 can potentially reduce hippocampus-related aging phenotypes.

Abbreviations

ANOVA: analysis of variance; FoxO1: forkhead box O1; HSP: heat shock protein; IPTG: isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactoside; NMDAR1: N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor 1; PCR: polymerase chain reaction; PSD95: postsynaptic density 95; ROS: reactive oxygen species; SD: standard deviation; Sirt: sirtuin; VGLUT2: vesicular glutamate transport 2.