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[Expression of cathepsin-B and -D in rat's brain after traumatic brain injury]
Yan-bo Zhang1, Xi-ping Chen, Lu-yang Tao
1Department of Forensic Medicine of Suzhou University, Suzhou 215123, China.
Objective:
To study the expression of cathepsin-B and -D in different time point after traumatic brain injury.
Methods:
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) model was established on rats, cathepsin-B and cathepsin-D immunofluorescence staining and confocal microscope analysis were performed. Positive cells were counted by confocal microscope and image analysis techniques were used to determine the morphological changes in each group.
Results:
Immunofluorescence staining results showed that cathepsin-B was activated 1 hour after TBI while cathepsin-D was not activated until 12hour after TBI. Both of them got to their peak during 4 to 8days, and kept a high level of activating 32days after TBI. Cathepsin-B and -D positive cells did not merge with caspase-3 positive cells until 6 h after TBI.
Conclusion:
Cathepsin-B and -D could be the diagnostic markers of TBI and can estimating time course of lateral TBI. They blocked caspase-3 activation at the beginning period after TBI and started to promote cell death with caspase-3 6 h after TBI.
