GLAST-CreERT2 mediated deletion of GDNF increases brain damage and exacerbates long-term stroke outcomes after focal ischemic stroke in mouse model.

Focal ischemic stroke (FIS) is a leading cause of human death. Glial scar formation largely caused by reactive astrogliosis in peri-infarct region (PIR) is the hallmark of FIS. Glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) was originally isolated from a rat glioma cell-line supernatant and is a potent survival neurotrophic factor. Here, using CreERT2 -LoxP recombination technology, we generated inducible and astrocyte-specific GDNF conditional knockout (cKO), that is, GLAST-GDNF-/- cKO mice to investigate the effect of reactive astrocytes (RAs)-derived GDNF on neuronal death, brain damage, oxidative stress and motor function recovery after photothrombosis (PT)-induced FIS. Under non-ischemic conditions, we found that adult GLAST-GDNF-/- cKO mice exhibited significant lower numbers of Brdu+, Ki67+ cells, and DCX+ cells in the dentate gyrus (DG) in hippocampus than GDNF floxed (GDNFf/f ) control (Ctrl) mice, indicating endogenous astrocytic GDNF can promote adult neurogenesis. Under ischemic conditions, GLAST-GDNF-/- cKO mice had a significant increase in infarct volume, hippocampal damage and FJB+ degenerating neurons after PT as compared with the Ctrl mice. GLAST-GDNF-/- cKO mice also had lower densities of Brdu+ and Ki67+ cells in the PIR and exhibited larger behavioral deficits than the Ctrl mice. Mechanistically, GDNF deficiency in astrocytes increased oxidative stress through the downregulation of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) in RAs. In summary, our study indicates that RAs-derived endogenous GDNF plays important roles in reducing brain damage and promoting brain recovery after FIS through neural regeneration and suggests that promoting anti-oxidant mechanism in RAs is a potential strategy in stroke therapy.