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Chronic Exposure to Dietary Sterol Glucosides is Neurotoxic to Motor Neurons and Induces an ALS–PDC Phenotype

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Abstract

Epidemiological studies of the Guamanian variants of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and parkinsonism, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis–parkinsonism dementia complex (ALS–PDC), have shown a positive correlation between consumption of washed cycad seed flour and disease occurrence. Previous in vivo studies by our group have shown that the same seed flour induces ALS and PDC phenotypes in out bred adult male mice. In vitro studies using isolated cycad compounds have also demonstrated that several of these are neurotoxic, specifically, a number of water insoluble phytosterol glucosides of which β-sitosterol β-d-glucoside (BSSG) forms the largest fraction. BSSG is neurotoxic to motor neurons and other neuronal populations in culture. The present study shows that an in vitro hybrid motor neuron (NSC-34) culture treated with BSSG undergoes a dose-dependent cell loss. Surviving cells show increased expression of HSP70, decreased cytosolic heavy neurofilament expression, and have various morphological abnormalities. CD-1 mice fed mouse chow pellets containing BSSG for 15 weeks showed motor deficits and motor neuron loss in the lumbar and thoracic spinal cord, along with decreased glutamate transporter labelling, and increased glial fibrillary acid protein reactivity. Other pathological outcomes included increased caspase-3 labelling in the striatum and decreased tyrosine-hydroxylase labelling in the striatum and substantia nigra. C57BL/6 mice fed BSSG-treated pellets for 10 weeks exhibited progressive loss of motor neurons in the lumbar spinal cord that continued to worsen even after the BSSG exposure ended. These results provide further support implicating sterol glucosides as one potential causal factor in the motor neuron pathology previously associated with cycad consumption and ALS–PDC.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the ALS Association, the Scottish Rite Charitable Foundation of Canada, the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (#DAMD17-02-1-0678) to C.A.S and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and PrioNet to N.C. The GLT-1B antibodies were kindly donated by Dr. D. Pow (University of Newcastle). Drs. R. Cruz-Aguado, D.G. Kay and I.E.P. Taylor and M. Petrik provided helpful critiques of earlier drafts of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Experimental Medicine, University of British Columbia, Rm 386, 828 W.10th Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5Z1L8

    R. C. Tabata, P. Ly & C. A. Shaw

  2. Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    J. M. B. Wilson & C. A. Shaw

  3. Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    P. Zwiegers, D. Kwok & C. A. Shaw

  4. Department of Neuroscience, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Fl, USA

    J. M. Van Kampen

  5. Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    N. Cashman

  6. Department of Physiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    C. A. Shaw

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Tabata, R.C., Wilson, J.M.B., Ly, P. et al. Chronic Exposure to Dietary Sterol Glucosides is Neurotoxic to Motor Neurons and Induces an ALS–PDC Phenotype. Neuromol Med 10, 24–39 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12017-007-8020-z

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