Experimental studies on the expression of amyloid ?-protein precursor in early stage of diffuse axonal injury in rats / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

s Objective To observe the changes in the expression of ?-amyloid precursor protein (?-APP) in selected brain areas in early stage of diffuse axonal injury (DAI) in rats. Methods DAI was induced in SD rats by a self-made rotating injury device. 16 rats in injury group were sacrificed by decapitation at 3 hours and 6 hours post-trauma, while the other 8 rats in sham injury group were put to death after 24 hours. The samples of the rat brain were stained with ?-APP for immunohistochemistry in order to detect the early stage pathological changes in subcortex white matter, hippocampus, corpus callosum and brain stem at different time points. Results The ?-APP expression was positive at 3 hours and was particularly strong at 6 hours after injury. The results of semi-quantitative analysis showed a significant differentiation of 3 hours and 6 hours in the immuno-positive expression of brain stem, corpus callosum and hippocampus. Histological results demonstrated that DAI occurred in all rats of injury group. Conclusion ?-APP is a kind of sensitive and useful immunochemical marker for early DAI diagnosis, and it indicates axonal lesion or breakage.