JIN Can,ZHANG Renkan,ZHANG Kairui, et al. The protective effect of docosahexaenoic acid on traumatic brain injury and its underlying mechanism[J]. JOURNAL OF WEZHOU MEDICAL UNIVERSITY, 2021, 51(12): 990-994.
Abstract：Objective: To investigate the protective effect of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its potential mechanism. Methods: Controlled cortical impact was used to establish an animal model of TBI. Forty-five C57BL/6 mice, in accordance with the random number table, were divided as the Sham group, the TBI group, the TBI+DHA group, with fifteen mice in each. After operation, the TBI+DHA group was intraperitoneally injected with DHA at the dose of 10 mg/kg/day within 30 minutes for three days. The Sham group and the TBI group were injected with the same volume of 0.9% sodium chloride solution. Garcia scores was performed on 21 days after TBI to assess the recovery of motor sensory function of each group.Hematoxylin eosin (HE) staining was used to observe the lesion of cerebral cortex of mice. Western blot and realtime fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) were used to detect the inflammation-related proteins such as tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interleukin-10 (IL-10) expression and corresponding nuclear-related factors. Results: Compared with the Sham group, the Garcia score in the TBI group significantly decreased (P<0.05), while that of DHA group increased significantly (P<0.05). Compared with the Sham group, the TBI group had obvious cerebral cortex tissue loss. However, the DHA drug treatment could reduce the cerebral cortex loss and promote its repair. Western blot and RT-qPCR showed that the protein expression of TNF-α, IL-6 and its mRNA increased significantly, while the expression of IL-10 gene and its mRNA decreased significantly in the TBI group (P<0.01), compared with the Sham group; the expression of TNF-α and IL-6 and its mRNA significantly decreased, while the expression of IL-10 significantly increased after DHA treatment (P<0.01) compared with the TBI group. Conclusion: DHA can produce the protective effect on traumatic brain injury, probably through regulating TNF-α signal pathway.
