Expression of caspase-3 and HAX-1 after cerebral contusion in rat / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To observe the expression pattern of caspase-3 and HCLS1-associated protein X-1 (HAX-1) at different time after cerebral contusion in rat, and explore the new method for estimating the injury interval.@*METHODS@#The cerebral contusion model was established using adult SD male rats. Then the rats were randomly allocated into 8 groups: 2 h, 6 h, 12 h, 1 d, 3 d, and 7 d after cerebral contusion, sham-operation and normal control. Expression of caspase-3 and HAX-1 protein after cerebral contusion in rat was detected by Western blotting. Laser scanning confocal microscope was used to observe the number of HAX-1 positive cells and TUNEL-stained cells after cerebral contusion.@*RESULTS@#The expression of caspase-3 increased parallelly with the time after cerebral contusion and reached the peak value on 3 d. The expression of caspase-3 decreased gradually and still maintained a high level expression on 7 d (P < 0.05). The expression of HAX-1 positive cell went up after injury, and reached the peak value at 6 h (P < 0.05), then turned down gradually after 12 h and went out of detection after 3 d. The number of TUNEL-stained cells increased obviously at 2 h and reached the peak value on 3 d. The number of TUNEL-stained apoptotic cells decreased gradually and still maintained a high level expression on 7 d (P < 0.05).@*CONCLUSION@#The expression of caspase-3 and HAX-1 after cerebral contusion has time sequential regularity, which may provide new evidence for forensic diagnosis of cerebral contusion interval.

Nitric oxide mediated TNF-α, IL-1β gene expression in liver induced by crush injury of rat's soft tissues / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To explore the effect of nitric oxide (NO) on the gene expression of hepatic TNF-α and IL-1β by crush injury of rat's soft tissues.@*METHODS@#Rats were randomly divided into sham group, crush group, crush+aminoguanidine (AG) group, and crush+L-arginine (L-Arg) group. Activities of ALT and AST as well as NO level in serum were measured. Gene expressions of TNF-α and IL-1β were detected with RT-PCR.@*RESULTS@#Obvious increase in TNF-α and IL-1β mRNA expression was detected in the crush group compared with the sham group (P<0.05). After pretreated L-Arg, expressions of TNF-α and IL-1β mRNA were markedly increased (P<0.05). After pretreated AG, those indices obviously decreased (P<0.05). Activities of ALT and AST enhanced and NO level increased in the crush group compared with the sham group (P<0.05). Pretreatment with L-Arg or AG led to substantial increased or reduced activities of ALT and AST as well as NO levels, respectively.@*CONCLUSION@#Endogenous NO mediated TNF-α, IL-1β mRNA up expression in liver induced by increased production of NO after crush injury of rat's soft tissues.

Time-order expression of caspase-3 and iNOS in contused human brain tissue / 法医学杂志

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the expression of caspase-3 and iNOS in different intervals and to provide evidence for estimation of injury intervals after brain contusion in human.@*METHODS@#Thirty cases died of serious brain injury were included into the injury groups and 5 cases died of non-brain injury were served as control group. To analyze the changes of caspase-3 and iNOS expression in brain samples at different intervals (2h, 4-8h, 10-14h, 1-2d, 3-5d, 8-11d) by immunohistochemistry and auto-image analysis system.@*RESULTS@#The level of caspase-3 expression started to increase in 2 hours after brain contusion compared to the control group (P<0.05). The level of caspase-3 expression continued to increase in 1-2 days and maintained high level in 3-5 days compared to the control group (P<0.05), then decreased gradually. There was no statistically significant difference between the expression level of iNOS in 2 hours with the control group (P>0.05). But the expression level of iNOS began to increase in 4-8 hours after brain contusion and reached its maximum in 1-2 days, then decreased. Weak expression of iNOS still could be detected in 8-11 days.@*CONCLUSION@#The expression of caspase-3 and iNOS can be used as effective evidence for human brain contusion interval.