The imbalance of astrocytic mitochondrial dynamics following blast-induced traumatic brain injury in male Sprague Dawley rats

STUDY PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess temporal dynamics of astrocyte-specific mitochondria in the hippocampus up to one week following blast-induced traumatic brain injury. DATA COLLECTED: Adult male Sprague Dawley rats were anesthetized and exposed to a single blast wave (124 kPa) head-on in an Advanced Blast Simulator (ABS). The sham group underwent all procedures, but were placed adjacent to the ABS. Fresh tissue was collected at 4 hours, 24 hours, 72 hours, and 7 days where the hippocampus was extracted and astrocytes were isolated using a Magnetic-Activated Cell Sorting (MACS) protocol. Western blotting procedures were then conducted using a capillary-based automatic Western system to measure protein expression of dynamin-related protein (Drp1), phosphorylated Drp1 at serine 616 (p-Drp1s616), phosphorylated Drp1 at serine 637 (p-Drp1s637), and GFAP. Fixed tissue analysis was also performed at 24 hours, 72 hours, and 7 days where immunohistochemistry was performed in the hippocampus sub-regions to quantify changes in GFAP expression. The area fraction, integrated density of fluorescence, and mean area per cell were quantified using Fiji (ImageJ, USA) software. All measurements were normalized to the average of the sham group. Statistical analysis was performed using a two-way ANOVA followed by Tukey's HSD test for multiple comparisons between blast and sham groups (6-7 subjects/group; 90 total) across all time points where p < 0.05 was significant. DATA USAGE NOTES: