Bok Is Not Pro-Apoptotic But Suppresses PARP-Dependent Cell Death Pathways and Protects against Excitotoxic and Seizure-Induced Neuronal Injury

Bok (Bcl-2-related ovarian killer) is a Bcl-2 family member that, because of its predicted structural homology to Bax and Bak, has been proposed to be a pro-apoptotic protein. In this study, we demonstrate that Bok is highly expressed in neurons of the mouse brain but that bok was not required for staurosporine-, proteasome inhibition-, or excitotoxicity-induced apoptosis of cultured cortical neurons. On the contrary, we found that bok-deficient neurons were more sensitive to oxygen/glucose deprivation-induced injury in vitro and seizure-induced neuronal injury in vivo. Deletion of bok also increased staurosporine-, excitotoxicity-, and oxygen/glucose deprivation-induced cell death in bax-deficient neurons. Single-cell imaging demonstrated that bok-deficient neurons failed to maintain their neuronal Ca2+ homeostasis in response to an excitotoxic stimulus; this was accompanied by a prolonged deregulation of mitochondrial bioenergetics. bok deficiency led to a specific reduction in neuronal Mcl-1 protein levels, and deregulation of both mitochondrial bioenergetics and Ca2+ homeostasis was rescued by Mcl-1 overexpression. Detailed analysis of cell death pathways demonstrated the activation of poly ADP-ribose polymerase-dependent cell death in bok-deficient neurons. Collectively, our data demonstrate that Bok acts as a neuroprotective factor rather than a pro-death effector during Ca2+ -and seizure-induced neuronal injury in vitro and in vivo.