scholarly journals WNT3A Promotes Neuronal Regeneration upon Traumatic Brain Injury

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu-Yuan Chang ◽  
Min-Zong Liang ◽  
Ching-Chih Wu ◽  
Pei-Yuan Huang ◽  
Hong-I Chen ◽  
...  

The treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a challenge due to limited knowledge about the mechanisms underlying neuronal regeneration. This current study compared the expression of WNT genes during regeneration of injured cortical neurons. Recombinant WNT3A showed positive effect in promoting neuronal regeneration via in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo TBI models. Intranasal administration of WNT3A protein to TBI mice increased the number of NeuN+ neurons without affecting GFAP+ glial cells, compared to control mice, as well as retained motor function based on functional behavior analysis. Our findings demonstrated that WNT3A, 8A, 9B, and 10A promote regeneration of injured cortical neurons. Among these WNTs, WNT3A showed the most promising regenerative potential in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chu-Yuan Chang ◽  
Jui-Hung Hung ◽  
Ching-Chih Wu ◽  
Min-Zong Liang ◽  
Pei-Yuan Huang ◽  
...  

AbstractThe treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is limited by a lack of knowledge about the mechanisms underlying neuronal regeneration. WNT family members have been implicated in neurogenesis and aberrant WNT signaling has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases. The current study compared the expression of WNT genes during regeneration of injured cortical neurons. Recombinant WNT3A showed positive effect in promoting neuronal regeneration via in vitro and in vivo TBI models. Intranasal administration of WNT3A protein to TBI mice increased NeuN+ cells compared to control mice as well as retained motor function based on behavior analysis. Since TBI is known to reprogram the epigenome, chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing of histone H3K27ac and H3K4me3 was performed to address the transcriptional regulation of WNT3A during neuronal regeneration. We predicted, characterized and proposed that a histone H3K4me1-marked enhancer may undergo topological transformation to regulate the WNT3A gene expression.


2020 ◽  
pp. 096032712098422
Author(s):  
Xiaobin Liu ◽  
Min Li ◽  
Jiabao Zhu ◽  
Weidong Huang ◽  
Jinning Song

Sestrin2 (SESN2) is stress-inducible protein that confers cytoprotective effects against various noxious stimuli. Accumulating evidence has documented that SESN2 has potent anti-apoptosis and anti-oxidative stress functions. However, whether it provides neuroprotection in traumatic brain injury (TBI) models remains unexplored. The purpose of this study was to explore the regulatory effect of SESN2 on TBI using in vivo and in vitro models. We found that TBI resulted in a marked induction of SESN2 in the cerebral cortex tissues of mice. SESN2 overexpression in the brain by in vivo gene transfer significantly decreased neurological deficit, brain edema, and neuronal apoptosis of mice with TBI. Moreover, the overexpression of SESN2 significantly decreased the oxidative stress induced by TBI in mice. In vitro studies of TBI demonstrated that SESN2 overexpression decreased apoptosis and oxidative stress in scratch-injured cortical neurons. Notably, SESN2 overexpression increased the nuclear levels of nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and enhanced the activation of Nrf2 antioxidant signaling in in vivo and in vitro models of TBI. In addition, the inhibition of Nrf2 significantly abolished SESN2-mediated neuroprotective effects in vivo and in vitro. In conclusion, these results of our work demonstrate that SESN2 protects against TBI by enhancing the activation of Nrf2 antioxidant signaling.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Tao Chen ◽  
Xiao Qian ◽  
Jie Zhu ◽  
Li-Kun Yang ◽  
Yu-Hai Wang

Decompressive craniectomy is an effective strategy to reduce intracranial hypertension after traumatic brain injury (TBI), but it is related to many postoperative complications, such as delayed intracranial hematoma and diffuse brain swelling. Our previous studies have demonstrated that controlled decompression (CDC) surgery attenuates brain injury and reduces the rate of complications after TBI. Here, we investigated the potential molecular mechanisms of CDC in experimental models. The in vitro experiments were performed in a traumatic neuronal injury (TNI) model following compression treatment in primary cultured cortical neurons. We found that compression aggravates TNI-induced neuronal injury, which was significantly attenuated by CDC for 2 h or 3 h. The results of immunocytochemistry showed that CDC reduced neuronal necroptosis and activation of RIP3 induced by TNI and compression, with no effect on RIP1 activity. These protective effects were associated with decreased levels of inflammatory cytokines and preserved intracellular Ca2+ homeostasis. In addition, the expression of the two-pore domain K+ channel TREK-1 and its activity was increased by compression and prolonged by CDC. Treatment with the TREK-1 blockers, spadin or SID1900, could partially prevent the effects of CDC on intracellular Ca2+ metabolism, necroptosis, and neuronal injury following TNI and compression. Using a traumatic intracranial hypertension model in rats, we found that CDC for 20 min or 30 min was effective in alleviating brain edema and locomotor impairment in vivo. CDC significantly inhibited neuronal necroptosis and neuroinflammation and increased TREK-1 activation, and the CDC-induced protection in vivo was attenuated by spadin and SID1900. In summary, CDC is effective in alleviating compressive neuronal injury both in vitro and in vivo, which is associated with the TREK-1-mediated attenuation of intracellular Ca2+ overload, neuronal necroptosis, and neuroinflammation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Zhou ◽  
Tao Tao ◽  
Guangjie Liu ◽  
Xuan Gao ◽  
Yongyue Gao ◽  
...  

AbstractNeuronal apoptosis has an important role in early brain injury (EBI) following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). TRAF3 was reported as a promising therapeutic target for stroke management, which covered several neuronal apoptosis signaling cascades. Hence, the present study is aimed to determine whether downregulation of TRAF3 could be neuroprotective in SAH-induced EBI. An in vivo SAH model in mice was established by endovascular perforation. Meanwhile, primary cultured cortical neurons of mice treated with oxygen hemoglobin were applied to mimic SAH in vitro. Our results demonstrated that TRAF3 protein expression increased and expressed in neurons both in vivo and in vitro SAH models. TRAF3 siRNA reversed neuronal loss and improved neurological deficits in SAH mice, and reduced cell death in SAH primary neurons. Mechanistically, we found that TRAF3 directly binds to TAK1 and potentiates phosphorylation and activation of TAK1, which further enhances the activation of NF-κB and MAPKs pathways to induce neuronal apoptosis. Importantly, TRAF3 expression was elevated following SAH in human brain tissue and was mainly expressed in neurons. Taken together, our study demonstrates that TRAF3 is an upstream regulator of MAPKs and NF-κB pathways in SAH-induced EBI via its interaction with and activation of TAK1. Furthermore, the TRAF3 may serve as a novel therapeutic target in SAH-induced EBI.


2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 630-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
TAO CHEN ◽  
LEI ZHANG ◽  
YAN QU ◽  
KAI HUO ◽  
XIAOFAN JIANG ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 1109-1130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marzieh Hajiaghamemar ◽  
Taotao Wu ◽  
Matthew B. Panzer ◽  
Susan S. Margulies

AbstractWith the growing rate of traumatic brain injury (TBI), there is an increasing interest in validated tools to predict and prevent brain injuries. Finite element models (FEM) are valuable tools to estimate tissue responses, predict probability of TBI, and guide the development of safety equipment. In this study, we developed and validated an anisotropic pig brain multi-scale FEM by explicitly embedding the axonal tract structures and utilized the model to simulate experimental TBI in piglets undergoing dynamic head rotations. Binary logistic regression, survival analysis with Weibull distribution, and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, coupled with repeated k-fold cross-validation technique, were used to examine 12 FEM-derived metrics related to axonal/brain tissue strain and strain rate for predicting the presence or absence of traumatic axonal injury (TAI). All 12 metrics performed well in predicting of TAI with prediction accuracy rate of 73–90%. The axonal-based metrics outperformed their rival brain tissue-based metrics in predicting TAI. The best predictors of TAI were maximum axonal strain times strain rate (MASxSR) and its corresponding optimal fraction-based metric (AF-MASxSR7.5) that represents the fraction of axonal fibers exceeding MASxSR of 7.5 s−1. The thresholds compare favorably with tissue tolerances found in in–vitro/in–vivo measurements in the literature. In addition, the damaged volume fractions (DVF) predicted using the axonal-based metrics, especially MASxSR (DVF = 0.05–4.5%), were closer to the actual DVF obtained from histopathology (AIV = 0.02–1.65%) in comparison with the DVF predicted using the brain-related metrics (DVF = 0.11–41.2%). The methods and the results from this study can be used to improve model prediction of TBI in humans.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1891
Author(s):  
Chu-Yuan Chang ◽  
Jui-Hung Hung ◽  
Liang-Wei Huang ◽  
Joye Li ◽  
Ka Shing Fung ◽  
...  

Traumatic brain injury is known to reprogram the epigenome. Chromatin immunoprecipitation-sequencing of histone H3 lysine 27 acetylation (H3K27ac) and tri-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me3) marks was performed to address the transcriptional regulation of candidate regeneration-associated genes. In this study, we identify a novel enhancer region for induced WNT3A transcription during regeneration of injured cortical neurons. We further demonstrated an increased mono-methylation of histone H3 at lysine 4 (H3K4me1) modification at this enhancer concomitant with a topological interaction between sub-regions of this enhancer and with promoter of WNT3A gene. Together, this study reports a novel mechanism for WNT3A gene transcription and reveals a potential therapeutic intervention for neuronal regeneration.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny B. Koenig ◽  
David Cantu ◽  
Cho Low ◽  
Farzad Noubary ◽  
Danielle Croker ◽  
...  

AbstractTraumatic brain injury (TBI) causes cortical dysfunction and can lead to post-traumatic epilepsy. Multiple studies demonstrate that GABAergic inhibitory network function is compromised following TBI, which may contribute to hyperexcitability and motor, behavioral, and cognitive deficits. Preserving the function of GABAergic interneurons, therefore, is a rational therapeutic strategy to preserve cortical function after TBI and prevent long-term clinical complications. Here, we explored an approach based on the ketogenic diet, a neuroprotective and anticonvulsant dietary therapy which results in reduced glycolysis and increased ketosis. Utilizing a pharmacologic inhibitor of glycolysis (2-deoxyglucose, or 2-DG), we found that acute in vitro glycolytic inhibition decreased the excitability of excitatory neurons, but not inhibitory interneurons, in cortical slices from naïve mice. Employing the controlled cortical impact (CCI) model of TBI in mice, we found that in vitro 2-DG treatment rapidly attenuated epileptiform activity seen in acute cortical slices 3-5 weeks after TBI. One week of in vivo 2-DG treatment immediately after TBI prevented the development of epileptiform activity, restored excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activity, and attenuated loss of parvalbumin-positive inhibitory interneurons. In summary, inhibition of glycolysis with 2-DG may have therapeutic potential to restore network function following TBI.One Sentence SummaryFollowing traumatic brain injury in mice, in vivo treatment with the glycolytic inhibitor 2-deoxyglucose prevented cortical network pathology including cortical hyperexcitability, changes in synaptic activity, and loss of parvalbumin-expressing GABAergic interneurons.


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