Investigation of the beneficial effects of lovastatin on traumatic brain injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a common cause of death and acquired disability in the developing and developed countries Currently no drug has been proved effective enough to treat TBI therefore treatment of TBI remains necessary Here we found lovastatin pretreatment had beneficial effects on TBI rats TBI rats displayed depression-like and anxiety-like behavior compared to sham-operated rats TBI rats also exhibited significantly higher level of Fluoro-Jade? C positive cells infarct volume Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF?) as compared to sham-operated rats in hippocampal dentate gyrus Pretreatment of lovastatin significantly improved these adverse effects of TBI However the beneficial effects of lovastatin pretreatment were blocked by AMPK inhibitor Compound C Taken together these results demonstrate that lovastatin pretreatment ameliorates fluid percussion-induced brain injury depression and anxiety and these effects are likely mediated by AMPK signal

Date of Award	2017 Jul 21
Original language	English
Supervisor	Po-Wu Gean (Supervisor)