Relationship between circulating IGF-1 levels and traumatic brain injury-induced hippocampal damage and cognitive dysfunction in immature rats
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Date
2012
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Abstract
It is well known that traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces the cognitive dysfunction resulting from hippocampal damage. In the present study, we aimed to assess whether the circulating IGF-I levels are associated with cognition and hippocampal damage in 7-day-old rat pups subjected to contusion injury. Hippocampal damage was examined by cresyl violet staining and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay. Spatial memory performance was assessed in the Morris water maze. Serum IGF-1 levels decreased in both early and late period of TBI. Decreased levels of serum IGF-1 were correlated with hippocampal neuron loss and spatial memory deficits. Circulating IGF-1 levels may be predictive of cognitive dysfunction resulted from hippocampal damage following traumatic injury in developing brain. Therapy strategies that increase circulating IGF-1 may be highly promising for preventing the unfavorable outcomes of traumatic damage in young children. © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
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Animals , Brain Injuries , Cognition , Cognition Disorders , Hippocampus , Insulin-Like Growth Factor I , Rats , Rats, Wistar , Statistics as Topic , somatomedin C , animal experiment , animal model , animal tissue , article , brain contusion , brain damage , brain development , brain nerve cell , cognitive defect , controlled study , dentate gyrus , escape behavior , hippocampus , latent period , left hemisphere , maze test , memory disorder , nerve cell necrosis , nick end labeling , nonhuman , predictive value , prefrontal cortex , priority journal , protein blood level , rat , right hemisphere , spatial memory , task performance , traumatic brain injury