title: Apelin-13 as a novel target for intervention in secondary injury after traumatic brain injury.
abstract: The adipocytokine, apelin-13, is an abundantly expressed peptide in the nervous system. Apelin-13 protects the brain against ischemia/reperfusion injury and attenuates traumatic brain injury by suppressing autophagy. However, secondary apelin-13 effects on traumatic brain injury-induced neural cell death and blood-brain barrier integrity are still not clear. Here, we found that apelin-13 significantly decreases cerebral water content, mitigates blood-brain barrier destruction, reduces aquaporin-4 expression, diminishes caspase-3 and Bax expression in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus, and reduces apoptosis. These results show that apelin-13 attenuates secondary injury after traumatic brain injury and exerts a neuroprotective effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Yang
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Medicine, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Xia
authors.initials: JX
authors.lastname: Kuai
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Cheng-Jie
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Shao-Xian
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Chao-Qun
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Hua-Bin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Wen-Can
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Xuzhou Medical College, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
authors.forename: Yong-Ping
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9073-2429
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Wu
keywords: apelin-13; apoptosis; aquaporin-4; blood-brain barrier; brain edema; brain water content; caspase-3; nerve regeneration; neural regeneration; traumatic brain injury