Expression of autophagy related proteins in neonatal rats after early infection induced celebral matter damage / 中国免疫学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the effect of infection on autophagy-related proteins,Beclin-1 and LC3,expression in cerebral white matter in newborn rats.Methods: A total of 64 two-day-old Sprague-Dawley(SD) rats were randomly divided into control and experimental groups(n=32 each).At day 2 to 6 after birth,the rats in experimental group were intraperitoneally injected with 0.6 mg/kg of lipopolysaccharide(LPS) once a day to establish a white matter injury induced by infection in neonatal rats while the rats in control group were injected with equal amounts of normal saline.Rats were sacrificed to collect brain tissues at 12 hour,1,3,5 d after model establishment.HE staining was performed to observe the pathological changes.Changes in the expression of Beclin-1 and LC3 in rat white matter were examined by Western blot and RT-PCR.Results: Growth and development of rat in experimental group was slow,cerebral white matter lesions were obvious.Compared with the control group,the experimental group Beclin1 and LC3 protein and mRNA levels in the model after 12 h began to express,1 d reached the peak,and then decreased,each time points were higher than the control group(P<0.05).Conclusion: Early infection in neonatal rats can cause white matter damage;the expression of autophagy-related proteins,Beclin1 and LC3,showed that autophagy may be involved in the pathological process of white matter damage induced by infection.