Xiao Jiayu, Zhang Jiqiang, Zhao Yangang, Huang Wenjie, Guo Zhikai, Su Bingyin, Guo Qiang
b Student Brigade , Third Military Medical University , Chongqing , China.
a Chongqing Key Laboratory of Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology , Third Military Medical University , Chongqing , China.
Neurol Res. 2017 Nov;39(11):1022-1027. doi: 10.1080/01616412.2017.1367077. Epub 2017 Aug 17.
The neural functional recovery of female is often better than that of male after spinal cord injury (SCI). Evidences show that estrogen can attenuate inflammation and promote the neural survival and regeneration after SCI. SRC-1 is an essential initiation factor for the estrogen-regulated target gene transcription and plays a key role in regulating estrogen activity. However, it is not known whether and how SRC-1 mediates the neural regeneration promoted by estrogen after SCI. Study of the sex differences and changes of SRC-1 expression after SCI will be helpful to understand the above questions.
In this study, the sex differences of expressions of SRC-1 and cytoskeleton-associated protein Profilin-1 in normal and SCI mice were detected by immunohistochemistry at 1-, 3-, and 7 days after injury, respectively.
Although the SRC-1 expression in female mice was lower than that in males under normal conditions, its expression in females was more dominant after SCI. The expression of Profilin-1 in both sexes increased first, and then decreased at 3 days after injury. However, there was a second increase in females at 7 days after injury.
Our study suggests that the more SRC-1 expression in females after SCI may play a role in improving the efficiency of estrogen function and thus, promote regeneration better. SRC-1 may also participate in the regulation of Profilin-1 in spinal cord, which is important in the assembly and extension of the axonal cytoskeleton during regeneration after SCI.
脊髓损伤（SCI）后女性的神经功能恢复通常优于男性。有证据表明，雌激素可减轻SCI后的炎症反应，并促进神经存活和再生。SRC-1是雌激素调节靶基因转录的关键起始因子，在调节雌激素活性中起关键作用。然而，尚不清楚SCI后SRC-1是否以及如何介导雌激素促进的神经再生。研究SCI后SRC-1表达的性别差异和变化将有助于理解上述问题。
在本研究中，分别于损伤后1天、3天和7天，通过免疫组织化学检测正常小鼠和SCI小鼠中SRC-1和细胞骨架相关蛋白丝切蛋白-1的表达性别差异。
尽管在正常条件下雌性小鼠中SRC-1的表达低于雄性，但SCI后其在雌性中的表达更为显著。损伤后3天，两性中丝切蛋白-1的表达均先升高后降低。然而，损伤后7天雌性中出现了第二次升高。
我们的研究表明，SCI后雌性中较高的SRC-1表达可能在提高雌激素功能效率中发挥作用，从而更好地促进再生。SRC-1也可能参与脊髓中丝切蛋白-1的调节，这在SCI后再生过程中轴突细胞骨架的组装和延伸中很重要。
