Essential protective roles of reactive astrocytes in traumatic brain injury

Astrocytes respond to traumatic brain injury (TBI) by altered gene expression, hypertrophy and proliferation that occur in a gradated fashion in relation to the severity of the injury. Both beneficial and detrimental effects have been attributed to reactive astrocytes, but their roles after brain injury are not well understood. To investigate these roles, we determined the effects on cortical tissue of ablating reactive astrocytes after contusion injury generated by controlled cortical impact (CCI) of different severities in transgenic mice that express a glial fibrillary acidic protein-herpes simplex virus-thymidine kinase transgene. Treatment of these mice with the antiviral agent, ganciclovir, conditionally…

• FH
  F. Hoffmann-La Roche
• NI
  National Institutes of Health
• UO
  University of California, Los Angeles