Cyclooxygenase-2 is involved in increased proliferation of neuronal progenitor cells in the ischemic mouse hippocampus Tsutomu Sasaki a, * , Kazuo Kitagawa a , Shiro Sugiura a , Emi Omura-Matsuoka a , Shigeru Tanaka a , Yoshiki Yagita a , Hideyuki Okano b , Masayasu Matsumoto c , Masatsugu Hori a a Division of Strokology, Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-2 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan b Department of Physiology, Keio University Graduate School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjyu-ku, Tokyo 160-8582, Japan c Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Division of Integrated Medical Science, Programs for Biomedical Research, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8551, Japan Received 8 November 2002; accepted 29 January 2003 Abstract Global ischemia promotes neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of the adult mouse hippocampus. Cyclooxygenase (COX)-2, the principal isoenzyme in the brain, modulates inflammation, glutamate- mediated cytotoxicity, and synaptic plasticity. The enhancement of dentate gyrus neurogenesis following ischemia was attenuated by COX inhibitors and in COX-2 knockout mice. These results demonstrate that COX-2 may modulate the enhancement of neurogenesis following ischemia. D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Neurogenesis; Hippocampus; COX-2; Neuronal progenitor; Musashi-1 1. Introduction It is well established in several rodent models studies that brain ischemia stimulates neurogenesis [1–5], however, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying pos- tischemic enhancement of neurogenesis are unknown. 0531-5131/03 D 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0531-5131(03)00071-2 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-6-6879-3634; fax: +81-6-6878-6574. E-mail address: sasaki@medone.med.osaka-u.ac.jp (T. Sasaki). International Congress Series 1252 (2003) 445 – 450