title: Epigenetic regulation in the brain after spinal cord injury : a comparative study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  After spinal cord injury (SCI), functional and structural reorganization occurs at multiple levels of brain including motor cortex. However, the underlying mechanism still remains unclear. The current study was performed to investigate the alterations in the expression of the main regulators of neuronal development, survival and death, in the brain following thoracic contusive SCI in a mouse model.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight-week-old female imprinting control region mice (n=60; 30-35 g) were used in this study. We analyzed the expression levels of regulators such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), nerve growth factor (NGF) and histone deacetylase (HDAC) 1 in the brain following thoracic contusive SCI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The expression of BDNF levels were elevated significantly compared with control group at 2 weeks after injury (p<0.05). The expression of NGF levels were elevated at 2, 4 weeks compared with control group, but these difference were not significant (p>0.05). The GDNF levels were elevated at 2 week compared with control group, but these differences were not significant (p>0.05). The difference of HDAC1 levels were not significant at 2, 4 and 8 weeks compared with control group (p>0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that the upregulation of BDNF may play on important role in brain reorganization after SCI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Wonju Christian Hospital, Yonsei University Wonju College of Medicine, Wonju, Korea.
authors.forename: Bit-Na-Ri
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Seok Won
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung-Rae
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Ji Yong
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Young-Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung-Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: Brain; Brain derived neurotrophic factor; Epigenetic; Regulators; Spinal cord injury