Neurotrophic factors influence upregulation of constitutive isoform of heme oxygenase and cellular stress response in the spinal cord following trauma. An experimental study using immunohistochemistry in the rat.

The influence of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) or insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) on spinal cord trauma induced carbon monoxide (CO) production and cellular stress response was examined using immunostaining of the constitutive isoform of the hemeoxygenase (HO-2) enzyme and the heat shock protein (HSP 72kD) expression in a rat model. Subjection of rats to a 5 h spinal trauma inflicted by an incision into the right dorsal horn at T10-11 segment markedly upregulated the HO-2 and HSP expression in the adjacent spinal cord segments (T9 and T12). Pretreatment with BDNF or IGF-1 significantly attenuated the trauma induced HSP expression. The upregulation of HO-2 was also considerably reduced. These results show that BDNF and IGF-1 attenuate cellular stress response and production of CO following spinal cord injury which seems to be the key factors in neurotrophins induced neuroprotection.