The effects of rehabilitative training on neural function and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule-1 after traumatic brain injury / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effectsof rehabilitative training on neural function and the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule-1 (Iba-1) in rats after traumatic brain injury.Methods A left hemisphere traumatic brain injury model was established in ninety Sprague-Dawley rats.They were then randomly divided into a rehabilitation training group,an immobilization group and a free-running group,with 30 rats in each group.Another thirty rats received sham injury as the shamoperated group.Beginning 4 days post-operation the rats of the rehabilitation training group were given balancing,rotating and walking exercises three times daily,15 min/time,6 d/week.The immobilization group was fixed in mesh cages.The rats of the free-running and sham-operated groups were reared in normal cages without any special training exercise.The rats of all 4 groups were given neural and motor function tests to assess the functional outcome.Immunofluorescence staining was used to evaluate the expressions of GFAP (the marker of astrocytes) and Iba-1 (the marker of microglia) in the cortex close to the iujured region at 3 days,1 week,2 weeks,3 weeks and 4 weeks after injury.Results The average neural and motor function test scores in the rehabilitation training group were significantly better than those in the immobilization and free-running groups at the 2nd week and thereafter.The average scores in the free-running group were significantly better than those in the immobilization group at the 4th week after injury.The immunofluorescence staining showed that the expression of GFAP was lowest in the rehabilitation group at the 2nd week and thereafter.Iba-1 expression was significantly lower only at the 3rd week and beyond.Conclusion Rehabilitative training can improve nerve function recovery in rats after traumatic brain injury,and the functional enhancement may be partially attributed to the downregulation of activated astrocytes and microglia.