Yu Wei-hua, Sun Shan-quan, Wang Ke-jian, He Gui-qiong, Yang Mei
Department of Anatomy, Chongqing University of Medical Sciences, Chongqing 400016, China.
Zhongguo Wei Zhong Bing Ji Jiu Yi Xue. 2007 Jun;19(6):349-52.
To investigate the impact of experimental brain injury on the noradrenergic (NA) neurons in the spinal cord, in order to explore possible mechanism of the changes in NA neuron expression.
Seventy healthy Wistar rats were randomly divided into two groups: normal group (n=10), brain injury (BI) group (n=60). The animals in BI group were subjected to BI with the modified Feeney's method. The spinal cords of rats were harvested at 3, 6, 12, 24, 48 and 72 hours after the injury, respectively. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used to assess the changes in dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH) expression.
IHC showed a small number of DBH-positive neurons distributed in anterior horn of the cervical and lumbar enlargements in control group; a larger number of dark-stained noradrenergic neurons were found in anterior horn, and also in posterior and lateral horns of spinal cord in brain injury group at different time points after injury, as compared with control group (P<0.05 or P<0.01). RT-PCR showed that the expression of DBH mRNA in brain injury group was significantly higher than that in control group at different time points after injury (P<0.05 or P<0.01).
A significant increase of NA neurons in spinal cord of brain injury group suggests that more NA is synthesized by the neurons, which is necessary to meet the demand of the organism under the stress condition, suggesting that NA plays a very important role in the course of brain injury.
研究实验性脑损伤对脊髓中去甲肾上腺素能（NA）神经元的影响，以探讨NA神经元表达变化的可能机制。
将70只健康Wistar大鼠随机分为两组：正常组（n = 10）、脑损伤（BI）组（n = 60）。采用改良的Feeney法对BI组动物造成脑损伤。分别在损伤后3、6、12、24、48和72小时采集大鼠脊髓。采用免疫组织化学（IHC）和逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）评估多巴胺-β-羟化酶（DBH）表达的变化。
IHC显示，对照组少量DBH阳性神经元分布于颈膨大及腰膨大前角；与对照组相比，脑损伤组在损伤后不同时间点，前角可见大量深染的去甲肾上腺素能神经元，脊髓后角及侧角也可见到（P<0.05或P<0.01）。RT-PCR显示，脑损伤组损伤后不同时间点DBH mRNA表达均显著高于对照组（P<0.05或P<0.01）。
脑损伤组脊髓中NA神经元显著增加，提示神经元合成了更多的NA，以满足机体在应激状态下的需求，表明NA在脑损伤过程中起非常重要的作用。
