Immunohistochemical indicators of early brain injury: an experimental study using the fluid-percussion model in cats.

To detect early changes in neurons and astrocytes by immunohistochemical methods using antibodies against the neuron-specific enolase (NSE), neurofilament, glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), and S-100 protein, a fluid-percussion injury model in cats was chosen, in which a severe grade of injury (3.5-5.5 atm) was produced. Neuropathologic changes were produced through brain deformation by pressure gradients at the time of injury. The neuronal NSE immunoreactivity in the parietal cortex and the brain stem began to decrease at 1 to 2 hours after injury and were reduced markedly or even lost 4 hours after injury. Axons in the cerebral white matter and corpus callosum and in the hemorrhage regions at the brain stem were waved and enlarged <4 hours after injury. From 4 hours after injury, retraction balls were found after staining by antibody for the neurofilament. The GFAP-positive astrocytes appeared in the impact site in the parietal cortex and in the brain stem from 4 hours after injury, whereas S-100-positive astrocytes were not markedly changed, indicating that early after the injury, astrocytes manifested reactive hypertrophy without proliferation. These results suggest that immunochemical studies on NSE, neurofilament, GFAP, and S-100 are useful in pathologic and forensic practice in a patient who survives for a short time after a fatal head injury but without obvious focal damage.