ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Interleukin-17A has been shown to play an important role in nerve regeneration following corneal injury. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of interleukin-17A on mouse nerve regeneration after optic nerve injury.METHODS: The interleukin-17A-overexpressed adenovirus vector (AV-IL-17A-GFP) was constructed and purified. Adenoviruses with green fluorescent protein (AV-GFP) served as control group. PC12 cell lines were transfected with adenoviruses and the expression efficiency of IL-17A were detected by ELISA. The adenovirus was intravitreally injected into the mouse vitreous body, and the expression level of IL-17A in the optic nerve was determined by immunofluorescence. Afterwards, a mouse model of optic nerve injury was established to observe the nerve regeneration. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: ELISA results showed that IL-17A was highly expressed in the PC12 cell lines transfected with AV-IL-17A-GFP compared with the control group.Immunofluorescence results revealed that IL-17A was expressed in vivo successfully.There was a significant increase in the number of regenerated axons in the AV-IL-17A-GFP group compared with the control group (P < 0.05). To conclude,AV-IL-17A-GFP can be expressed in the mature neurons in vivo and promote the axon regeneration after optic nerve crush injury in mice.