Immunolocalization of Heat Shock Protein after Fluid Percussive Brain Injury and Relationship to Breakdown of the Blood-Brain Barrier

Abstract

We have previously developed a model of mild, lateral fluid percussive head injury in the rat and demonstrated that although this injury produced minimal hemorrhage, breakdown of the blood–brain barrier was a prominent feature. The relationship between posttraumatic blood–brain barrier disruption and cellular injury is unclear. In the present study we examined the distribution and time course of expression of the stress protein HSP72 after brain injury and compared these findings with the known pattern of breakdown of the blood–brain barrier after a similar injury. Rats were subjected to a lateral fluid percussive brain injury (4.8–5.2 atm, 20 ms) and killed at 1, 3, and 6 h and 1,3, and 7 days after injury. HSP72-like immunoreactivity was evaluated in sections of brain at the light-microscopic level. The earliest expression of HSP72 occurred at 3 h postinjury and was restricted to neurons and glia in the cortex surrounding a necrotic area at the impact site. By 6 h, light immunostaining was also noted in the pia-arachnoid adjacent to the impact site and in certain blood vessels that coursed through the area of necrosis. Maximal immunostaining was observed by 24 h postinjury, and was primarily associated with the cortex immediately adjacent to the region of necrosis at the impact site. This region consisted of darkly immunostained neurons, glia, and blood vessels. Immunostaining within the region of necrosis was restricted to blood vessels. HSP72-like immunoreactivity was also noted in a limited number of neurons and glia in other brain regions, including the parasagittal cortex, deep cortical layer VI, and CA3 in the posterior hippocampus. Immunoreactive cells in these areas were not apparent until 24 h postinjury. By 7 days postinjury, HSP72-like immunoreactivity was minimal or absent in these injured brains and notable cell loss was apparent only in the impact site. This study demonstrates an early and pronounced expression of HSP72 at the impact site and a more delayed and less prominent expression of this protein in other regions of the brain. These findings parallel the temporal and regional pattern of breakdown of the blood–brain barrier after a similar head injury.