Spatiotemporal expression patterns of Galectin-3 in perinatal rat hypoxic-ischemic brain injury model

In this research, we intended to evaluate the expression pattern, distribution and sources of Galectin-3 (Gal-3) in perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury rat model. Postnatal day 3 Sprague-Dawley rat pups were subjected to right carotid artery ligation followed by 2.5 h of hypoxia (6% oxygen). Expression and distribution of Gal-3 were evaluated by western blotting and immunofluorescence. Sources of Gal-3 were evaluated by double staining with neuronic, oligodendrocytic, astrocytic, microglial and endotheliocytic markers. Our results indicated Gal-3 significantly upregulated from 12 h and maintained an increasing tendency within 72 h post injury. Although the relative expression of Gal-3 decreased after 72 h, we detected significant differences until 14d. We found Gal-3 started to distribute in cortex and thalamus area and maintained an increasing tendency. Gal-3 could be detected in cortex, thalamus, corpus callosum and hippocampus area at 72 h post injury. After that, expression of Gal-3 in cortex and thalamus area downregulated, the expression in corpus callosum and hippocampus area vanished. We found astrocyte, microglia, neuron and endotheliocyte were sources of Gal-3 in cortex area; astrocyte, microglia and endotheliocyte were sources of Gal-3 in thalamus area; oligodendrocyte precursor cell and endotheliocyte were sources of Gal-3 in corpus callosum; neuron, microglia and endotheliocyte were sources of Gal-3 in hippocampus. In conclusion, we demonstrated spatiotemporal expression patterns of Galectin-3 post perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in this research.