THE PHAGOCYTIC ACTIVITY OF RAT BRAIN ASTROCYTES IN PRIMARY CULTURE IS REGULATED BY INSULIN AND GM1 GANGLIOSIDE
A timely and efficient removal of apoptotic cells and their fragments is essential to maintain tissue homeostasis in normal and pathological conditions. Since the removal of apoptotic substrates is carried out by the cells endowed with phagocytic activity, the issue on its regulation is of particular interest. In this work, we studied the effect of two biologically active substances, insulin and GM1 ganglioside, on phagocytic activity of primary rat brain astrocytes. We showed that cell incubation with 1 μM insulin significantly decreased the phagocytic activity of astrocytes (58.5% <i>vs.</i> control), whereas the incubation of astrocytes with 10 µM GM1 caused an increase in phagocytic activity (133.4% <i>vs.</i> control). Preincubation of brain astrocytes with GM1 completely blocked the inhibitory effect of insulin. These results can be instrumental to developing novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases accompanied by the emergence of apoptotic substrates.