Glia mediates the neuroprotective action of estradiol on β-amyloid-induced neuronal death

17beta-Estradiol (17beta-E-2) is known to exert neuroprotective activity against beta-amyloid, but its exact target and mechanism of action in this effect have not been elucidated. The involvement of astroglia in neuroprotection of 17beta-E-2 against the beta-amyloid fragment [betaAP((25-35))] has been evaluated using an experimental paradigm in which medium conditioned from rat astroglia pretreated with 17beta-E2 was transferred to pure rat cortical neurons challenged with 25 muM betaAP((25-35)) for 24 h. The toxicity of betaAP((25-35)) was assessed by flow cytometry, evaluating the ability of the peptide to induce an aberrant mitotic cell cycle in neurons. The results obtained indicate that conditioned medium from astrocytes preexposed to 17beta-E-2 for 4 h increased the viability of cortical neurons treated with betaAP((25-35)). This effect was not modified by treatment with the estrogen receptor antagonist ICI 182,780, added directly to neurons, nor was it mimicked by direct addition of 17beta-E-2 to neuronal cultures during exposure to betaAP((25-35)). A soluble factor stimulated by 17beta-E-2 seemed to be involved, and accordingly, the intracellular and released levels of TGF-beta1 were increased by 17beta-E-2 treatment, as established by Western blot analysis. In addition, the intracellular content of TGF-beta1 in immunopositive cells, as detected by flow cytometry, was reduced, suggesting that 17beta-E-2 stimulated mainly the release of the cytokine. In support of a role for TGF-beta1 in astrocyte-mediated 17beta-E-2 neuroprotective activity, incubation with a neutralizing anti-TGF-beta1 antibody significantly modified the reduction of neuronal death induced by 17beta-E-2-treated astrocyte-conditioned medium.