Caveolin expression changes in the neurovascular unit after juvenile traumatic brain injury: signs of blood-brain barrier healing?

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the major causes of death and disability in pediatrics, and results in a complex cascade of events including the disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB). A controlled-cortical impact on post-natal 17-day-old rats induced BBB disruption by IgG extravasation from 1 to 3 days after injury and returned to normal at day 7. In parallel, we characterized the expression of three caveolin isoforms, caveolin 1 (cav-1), caveolin 2 (cav-2) and caveolin 3 (cav-3). While cav-1 and cav-2 are expressed on endothelial cells, both cav-1 and cav-3 were found to be present on reactive astrocytes, in vivo and in vitro. Following TBI, cav-1 expression was increased in blood vessels at 1 and 7 days in the perilesional cortex. An increase of vascular cav-2 expression was observed 7 days after TBI. In contrast, astrocytic cav-3 expression decreased 3 and 7 days after TBI. Activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) (via its phosphorylation) was detected 1 day after TBI and phospho-eNOS was detected both in association with blood vessels and with astrocytes. The molecular changes involving caveolins occurring in endothelial cells following juvenile-TBI might participate, independently of eNOS activation, to a mechanism of BBB repair while, they might subserve other undefined roles in astrocytes.

Delayed increase of astrocytic aquaporin 4 after juvenile traumatic brain injury: possible role in edema resolution?

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of death and disability in children and adolescents. The neuropathological sequelae that result from TBI are a complex cascade of events including edema formation, which occurs more frequently in the pediatric than the adult population. This developmental difference in the response to injury may be related to higher water content in the young brain and also to molecular mechanisms regulating water homeostasis. Aquaporins (AQPs) provide a unique opportunity to examine the mechanisms underlying water mobility, which remain poorly understood in the juvenile post-traumatic edema process. We examined the spatiotemporal expression pattern of principal brain AQPs (AQP1, AQP4, and AQP9) after juvenile TBI (jTBI) related to edema formation and resolution observed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Using a controlled cortical impact in post-natal 17 day-old rats as a model of jTBI, neuroimaging analysis showed a global decrease in water mobility (apparent diffusion coefficient, ADC) and an increase in edema (T2-values) at 1 day post-injury, which normalized by 3 days. Immunohistochemical analysis of AQP4 in perivascular astrocyte endfeet was increased in the lesion at 3 and 7days post-injury as edema resolved. In contrast, AQP1 levels distant from the injury site were increased at 7, 30, and 60 days within septal neurons but did not correlate with changes in edema formation. Group differences were not observed for AQP9. Overall, our observations confirm that astrocyticAQP4 plays a more central role than AQP1 or AQP9 during the edema process in the young brain.