Analysis of the Cerebral Transcriptome in Mice Subjected to Traumatic Brain Injury: Importance of IL-6

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury is one of the leading causes of incapacity and death among young people. Injury to the brain elicits a potent inflammatory response, comprising recruitment of inflammatory cells, reactive astrogliosis and activation of brain macrophages. Under the influence of presumably several cytokines and growth factors, a cascade of events is activated that result ultimately in increased oxidative stress and tissue damage, but also in activation of counterregulatory factors and tissue regeneration. The complexity of this response is being unraveled by high-throughput methodologies such as microarrays. The combination of these modern techniques with the comparison of normal and genetically modified mice boosts the significance of the results obtained. With this approach, we have demonstrated that a cytokine such as interleukin-6 is one of the key players in the response of the brain to injury.

Lipoic acid and bone marrow derived cells therapy induce angiogenesis and cell proliferation after focal brain injury

“…Histological characterization of the injured area As previously described in the materials and methods section, the cryo-injury protocol was performed on the right mouse hemisphere following the protocol described by Quintana et al [44] ( Figure 1A). In order to evaluate and characterize the morphology of this cortical lesion, a haematoxylin-eosin staining was performed 8 d.a.c.…”

“…and placed in a stereotaxic fixation frame (Digital Lab Standard Stereotaxic, Wood Dale, Il). The dorsal part of the skull was exposed and drilled unilaterally on the right side where the brain cryo-injury was performed following the protocol described by Quintana et al [44]. Briefly, a 28 gauge stainless steel probe deep cold in liquid nitrogen (À183 C) was penetrated stereotaxically through the right fronto-parietal cortex (co-ordinates from bregma L: +1.5 mm; A: À0.1 mm; D: À1.5; according to the compact mouse brain atlas by Paxinos and Franklin [45] ( Figure 1A).…”

Neuroinflammation induces glial aromatase expression in the uninjured songbird brain

“…Interestingly, a second rise in cytokine expression occurred in the injury tissue and may signal the shift from neurodegeneration to repair in damaged tissue. IL-6 in particular, is known to shift from a pro-inflammatory mediator to an anti-inflammatory/neuroprotective role following injury [57-59]. This shift also occurs in both the localization and function of IL-1β following injury.…”

Neuroprotection of lipoic acid treatment promotes angiogenesis and reduces the glial scar formation after brain injury

“…1). The brain cryo-injury was performed following the protocol described by Quintana et al (2007). Thus, the cryo-injury (1 mm deep) was performed in the cerebral cortex by using a 28 G stainless steel probe previously frozen in liquid nitrogen.…”