Thrombin preconditioning reduces iron-induced brain swelling and brain atrophy

Cerebral preconditioning with a low dose of thrombin attenuates brain edema induced by intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), a large dose of thrombin or iron. This study examined whether or not thrombin preconditioning (TPC) reduces neuronal death and brain atrophy caused by iron. The right hippocampus of rats was pretreated with or without thrombin, and iron was then injected into the same location 3 days later. Rats were killed at 1 day or 7 days after iron injection, and the brains were used for histology. We found that TPC reduced neuronal death and brain swelling in the hippocampus 1 day after iron injection, and hippocampal atrophy 7 days later. Western blots showed that thrombin activates p44/42 mitogen-activated protein kinase (p44/42 MAPK) and 70-kDa ribosomal protein S6 kinase (p70 S6K). Our results indicate that TPC reduction of iron-induced neuronal death may be through the p44/42 MAPK /p70 S6K signal transduction pathway.