TY - JOUR PY - 2013// TI - Blast induces oxidative stress, inflammation, neuronal loss and subsequent short-term memory impairment in rats JO - Neuroscience A1 - Cho, Hyung Joon A1 - Sajja, Venkata Siva Sai Sujith A1 - Vandevord, Pamela J. A1 - Lee, Yong Woo SP - 9 EP - 20 VL - 253 IS - N2 - Molecular and cellular mechanisms of brain injury after exposure to blast overpressure (BOP) are not clearly known. The present study hypothesizes that pro-oxidative and pro-inflammatory pathways in brain may be responsible for neuronal loss and behavioral deficits following BOP exposure. Male Sprague Dawley rats were anesthetized and exposed to calibrated BOP of 129.23 ± 3.01 kPa while controls received only anesthesia. In situ dihydroethidium (DHE) fluorescence staining revealed that BOP significantly increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the brain. In addition, real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), immunofluorescence staining and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) demonstrated a significant up-regulation of mRNA and protein expressions of pro-inflammatory mediators, such as interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), in brains collected from BOP-exposed animals compared with the controls. Furthermore, immunoreactivity of neuronal nuclei (NeuN) in brains indicated that fewer neurons were present following BOP exposure. Moreover, novel object recognition (NOR) paradigm showed a significant impairment in the short-term memory at 2 weeks following BOP exposure. These results suggest that pro-oxidative and pro-inflammatory environments in brain could play a potential role in BOP-induced neuronal loss and behavioral deficits. It may provide a foundation for defining a molecular and cellular basis of the pathophysiology of blast-induced neurotrauma (BINT). It will also contribute to the development of new therapeutic approaches selectively targeting these pathways, which have great potential in diagnosis and therapy for BINT.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0306-4522 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2013.08.037 ID - ref1 ER -