giza-affy-rat-84719

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces a complex cascade of molecular and physiological effects. This study proposes to investigate the gene expression profile in cortex and hippocampus over early time points, following two different injury severities. These results will complement prior knowledge of both metabolic and neuroplastic changes after TBI, as well as serve as a starting point to investigate additional gene families whose expression is altered after TBI. To characterize the profile of gene expression following a diffuse traumatic brain injury of varying severity in adult rats. Distinct patterns of gene expression following traumatic brain injury will occur in a time- and injury-dependent fashion. In particular, changes in expression of enzymes involved in energy metabolism and neuroplasticity will be detected. Adult rats will be subjected to mild and severe lateral fluid percussion injury OR sham surgery without injury. At various post-injury timepoints (0.5, 4 and 24 hours), animals will be sacrificed, brain regions (parietal cortex and hippocampus, ipsilateral and contralateral to injury) will be dissected and RNA isolated. RNA will be used to synthesize cRNA probes for microarray hybridization. RNA from 2 matched animals will be pooled onto a single chip (U34A rat, Affymetrix). Comparisons will be made between sham and injured animals, with brain region, injury severity, and post-injury time point as the experimental variables. Keywords: time-course as above