Expression of aquaporin-4 in the brain tissues from patients with severe brain injuries and its significance / 中华创伤杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the expression of aquaporin-4 (AQP-4) in core and marginal region of the contusion brain tissues from patients with severe traffic brain injuries. Methods Thirty patients with severe traffic brain injuries (frontal-temporal brain contusion) admitted into our department from January 2007 to July 2009 were enrolled in the study and divided into three groups according to the period from injury to operation, ie, 0-4 hours (Group A), 5-8 hours (Group B) and 9-12 hours (Group C). The tissue was collected from core and marginal regions of brain contusion in each group. Ten parts of normal brain tissues obtained from the cerebellum to gain good exposure of CPA region tumors were used as control. The expression of AQP-4 in the normal brain tissues and in the tissues from core and marginal region of brain contusion, with GAPDH used as a control. Results The expression of AQP-4 in the marginal region was distinctly higher than that in normal tissues and in the tissues from core region. The AQP-4 expression in the tissues of the core region was lower than that in normal tissues. Conclusions AQP-4 is highly expressed in the tissues from the marginal region early after injury in a time-dependent fashion. Low expression level of AQP-4 in the core region is possibly correlated with early damage of blood brain barrier and peripheral structures.