Department of Veterinary Anatomy, College of Veterinary Medicine, Jeju National University, Jeju 690-756, Republic of Korea.
Department of Anatomy, School of Medicine, Jeju National University, Jeju 690-756, Republic of Korea.
Acta Histochem. 2014 Jun;116(5):747-52. doi: 10.1016/j.acthis.2014.01.002. Epub 2014 Feb 13.
Activin A, a member of the TGF-β superfamily, plays roles in neuroprotection and immunomodulation. In the present study, activin A expression was investigated on days 1, 4 and 7 post-injury in female adult Sprague-Dawley rats with spinal cord injuries (SCIs). The spinal cord was compressed with a vascular clip for 1 min following laminectomy at T9/T10. Western blot analysis showed that activin A levels peaked in SCI core lesions 4 days post-injury (p<0.01) and fell thereafter until day 7. Immunohistochemically, activin A was constitutively expressed in vascular endothelial cells, astrocytes and neurons of sham-operated controls, and in macrophages and reactive astrocytes of lesional cores and peripheries. As activin A plays an immunomodulatory role in the early stages of SCI and facilitates behavioral improvement, we postulate that transient upregulation of activin A in SCI tissue may contribute to modulation of inflammation development during SCI, thus leading to neuroprotection.
激活素 A 是转化生长因子-β超家族的成员，在神经保护和免疫调节中发挥作用。在本研究中，研究了雌性成年 Sprague-Dawley 大鼠脊髓损伤 (SCI) 后第 1、4 和 7 天激活素 A 的表达。在 T9/T10 椎板切除术后，用血管夹压迫脊髓 1 分钟。Western blot 分析显示，激活素 A 水平在损伤核心 4 天达到峰值 (p<0.01)，此后下降直至第 7 天。免疫组化染色显示，激活素 A 在假手术对照组的血管内皮细胞、星形胶质细胞和神经元中持续表达，在损伤核心和周围的巨噬细胞和反应性星形胶质细胞中也有表达。由于激活素 A 在 SCI 的早期阶段发挥免疫调节作用，并促进行为改善，我们推测 SCI 组织中激活素 A 的短暂上调可能有助于调节 SCI 期间炎症的发展，从而导致神经保护。
