Post-Translational Tubulin Modifications in Human Astrocyte Cultures

The cytoskeletal protein tubulin plays an integral role in the functional specialization of many cell types. In the central nervous system, post-translational modifications and the expression of specific tubulin isotypes in neurons have been analyzed in greater detail than in their astrocytic counterparts. In this study, we characterized post-translational specifications of tubulin in human astrocytes using the normal human astrocyte (NHA; Lonza) commercial cell line of fetal origin. Immunocytochemical techniques were implemented in conjunction with confocal microscopy to image class III β-tubulin (βIII-tubulin), acetylated tubulin, and polyglutamylated tubulin using fluorescent antibody probes. Fluorescent probe intensity differences and colocalization were quantitatively assessed with the ‘EBImage’ package for the statistical programming language R. Colocalization analysis revealed that, although both acetylated tubulin and polyglutamylated tubulin showed a high degree of correlation with βIII-tubulin, the correlation with acetylated tubulin was stronger. Quantification and statistical analysis of fluorescence intensity demonstrated that the fluorescence probe intensity ratio for acetylated tubulin/βIII-tubulin was greater than the ratio for polyglutamylated tubulin/βIII-tubulin. The open source GEODATA set GSE819950, comprising RNA sequencing data for the NHA cell line, was mined for the expression of enzymes responsible for tubulin modifications. Our analysis uncovered greater expression at the mRNA level for enzymes reported to function in acetylation and deacetylation as compared to enzymes implicated in glutamylation and deglutamylation. Taken together, the results represent a step toward unraveling the tubulin isotypic expression profile and post-translational modification patterns in astrocytes during human brain development.