The relationship between expression changes of Mfn2 and astrocyte activation after spinal cord injury
LI Chang-li
ZHENG Li
JIANG Meng
YI Cheng-la
BAI Xiang-jun
Abstract：Objective To explore the relationship between expression changes of Mfn2 and astrocyte acti-vation after spinal cord injury( SCI) and analyze its significance,so as to provide a basis for the next research about overexpression of Mfn2 suppressing the astrocytes activation after SCI.Methods The rat models of SCI were built and the expression of Mfn2 and glial fibrillary acidic protein ( GFAP) was detected using the methods of immunoflu-orescence-staining and Western Blotting. Forty-eight adult male SD rats were randomly divided into two groups:sham group(n=24) and SCI group(n=24).Thoracic spinal cord injured model was built in animals of the SCI group according to the Allen’ s method,but the animals of the sham group only received laminectomy.Animals were anesthetized and thoracic spinal cord tissues were taken at the days of 1,3,7 and 14 separately.Then histologic-im-munofluorescence-staining was made to observe the morphology of the spinal cord and Western Blotting was made to detect the expression changes of GFAP and Mfn2 at various time points.Results The immunofluorescence staining result showed that after SCI,the thoracic segment between dorsal horns of spinal cord grey matter was damaged and the structure was disordered and the boundary was not clear;the result of Western Blotting showed that after SCI,the expression of Mfn2 in the thoracic spinal cord was decreased from the first day,compared with the sham group;the Mfn2 expression of group of thoracic SCI was decreased entirely and obviously from the third day after operation,with significantly statistical difference(P<0.05);the expression of GFAP increased gradually with the development of inju-ry,and the difference was statistically significant from the third day after the operation(P<0.05).Conclusion After SCI,the expression of GFAP which is the specific marker of astrocytes is increased.At the same time,the products of Mfn2 which is proved to be a hyperplasia suppressor gene is decreased.So there is an inversed relationship between the expression of Mfn2 and the activation and proliferation of astrocytes after SCI.
Keywords：spinal cord injurychondriosomeastrocyteproteinrats
Publication Date：2016-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 153-157 )