Acute doses of caffeine shift nervous system cell expression profiles toward promotion of neuronal projection growth

Sci Rep. 2017 Sep 13;7(1):11458. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-11574-6.

Abstract

Caffeine is a widely consumed psychoactive substance, but little is known about the effects of caffeine stimulation on global gene expression changes in neurons. Here, we conducted gene expression profiling of human neuroepithelial stem cell-derived neurons, stimulated with normal consumption levels of caffeine (3 μM and 10 μM), over a period of 9 h. We found dosage-dependent activation of immediate early genes after 1 h. Neuronal projection development processes were up-regulated and negative regulation of axon extension processes were down-regulated at 3 h. In addition, genes involved in extracellular matrix organization, response for wound healing, and regulation of immune system processes were down-regulated by caffeine at 3 h. This study identified novel genes within the neuronal projection guidance pathways that respond to acute caffeine stimulation and suggests potential mechanisms for the effects of caffeine on neuronal cells.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers
  • Caffeine / administration & dosage*
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Central Nervous System Stimulants / administration & dosage*
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
  • Fluorescent Antibody Technique
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation / drug effects
  • Humans
  • Molecular Sequence Annotation
  • Nervous System Physiological Phenomena / drug effects*
  • Nervous System Physiological Phenomena / genetics*
  • Neural Stem Cells / drug effects
  • Neural Stem Cells / metabolism
  • Neurites / drug effects*
  • Neurites / metabolism*
  • Neurogenesis / drug effects
  • Neurogenesis / genetics
  • Neurons / cytology
  • Neurons / drug effects*
  • Neurons / metabolism*
  • Phenotype
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Central Nervous System Stimulants
  • Caffeine