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

• Published in: Neural regeneration research 2016-07, Vol.11 (7), p.1128-1133
• Main Authors: Bao, Hai-jun, Qiu, Hai-yang, Kuai, Jin-xia, Song, Cheng-jie, Wang, Shao-xian, Wang, Chao-qun, Peng, Hua-bin, Han, Wen-can, Wu, Yong-ping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Apoptosis; Autophagy (Cytology); Brain injuries; Caspase-3; Edema; Laboratory animals; nerve regeneration; apoptosis; apelin-13; traumatic brain injury; brain edema; blood-brain barrier; brain water content; aquaporin-4; caspase-3; neural regeneration; Nervous system; Proteins; Risk factors; Traumatic brain injury; 创伤性脑损伤; 水通道蛋白4; 神经保护作用; 神经细胞死亡; 继发性; 缺血/再灌注损伤; 血脑屏障
• ISSN: 1673-5374; 1876-7958
• DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.187049

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.