title: Different glial reactions to hippocampal stab wounds in young adult and aged rats.
abstract: Brain injury induces reactive gliosis. To examine the activation of glial cells after brain injury in young versus aged rats, we used a brain stab-wound model and examined the expression of cells positive for ED1 (ED1(+)) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP(+)) in the hippocampus in young-mature (3 months) and aged (25 months) Wistar rats at various times following hippocampal stab injury. ED1(+) cells appeared more frequently in the aged rats than in the young-mature rats under control conditions, whereas the number of GFAP(+) cells was not different between two groups. Following the stab wound, there was an increase in ED1 expression that was delayed but stronger in the aged rats and that persisted longer; the increase of the number of GFAP(+) cells also persisted longer. We conclude that different glial reactivity in the aged brain suggests that aging is associated with increased glial responsiveness that may enhance susceptibility to injury and disease in the brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: Waner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Umegaki
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinkai
authors.forename: Shinobu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kurotani
authors.forename: Yusuke
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Hidetoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Endo
authors.forename: Akihisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Iguchi
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000293:injuries* / Q000473:pathology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D011336:Probability; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014951:Wounds, Stab / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005904:Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein