Apelin-13 as a novel target for intervention in secondary injury after traumatic brain injury.

The adipocytokine, apelin-13, is an abundantly expressed peptide in the nervous system. Apelin-13 protects the brain against ischemia/reperfusion injury and attenuates traumatic brain injury by suppressing autophagy. However, secondary apelin-13 effects on traumatic brain injury-induced neural cell death and blood-brain barrier integrity are still not clear. Here, we found that apelin-13 significantly decreases cerebral water content, mitigates blood-brain barrier destruction, reduces aquaporin-4 expression, diminishes caspase-3 and Bax expression in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and reduces apoptosis. These results show that apelin-13 attenuates secondary injury after traumatic brain injury and exerts a neuroprotective effect.