Neonatal Nerve Injury Induces a Larger Astrocyte Response than Adult Injury
Advisor Information
Suzanne Sollars
Location
Room 231
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Start Date
1-3-2019 10:30 AM
End Date
1-3-2019 11:45 AM
Abstract
The taste system of rats is a useful system to study injury recovery, in part due to the stark differences in effects following damage to the chorda tympani nerve (CT). Whereas CT damage in adult rats has minor, temporary effects, an identical injury during the first few days of life has profound, permanent effects. One contributing factor may be the immune response; both microglia and astrocytes function as part of the immune response and have been implicated in differences in injury recovery. In the current study, the CT of rats was injured at either 10 (young) or 50 (adult) days of age. Four or fourteen days later, brains were extracted and microglia and astrocytes near the CT fibers in the brain were visualized using immunohistochemistry and quantified. Both microglia and astrocytes increased in number four-days following injury, regardless of age (ps < .05). However, while the microglia increase was largest in the adult condition (p < .05), the astrocyte increase was largest in the young brain (p < .05). Further, while the astrocyte response to 50 day CTX persisted for at least fourteen days (p < .05), the response to 10 day CTX was only present four days post- CTX. These data suggest microglia and astrocyte responses that vary based on age of injury.
Neonatal Nerve Injury Induces a Larger Astrocyte Response than Adult Injury
Room 231
The taste system of rats is a useful system to study injury recovery, in part due to the stark differences in effects following damage to the chorda tympani nerve (CT). Whereas CT damage in adult rats has minor, temporary effects, an identical injury during the first few days of life has profound, permanent effects. One contributing factor may be the immune response; both microglia and astrocytes function as part of the immune response and have been implicated in differences in injury recovery. In the current study, the CT of rats was injured at either 10 (young) or 50 (adult) days of age. Four or fourteen days later, brains were extracted and microglia and astrocytes near the CT fibers in the brain were visualized using immunohistochemistry and quantified. Both microglia and astrocytes increased in number four-days following injury, regardless of age (ps < .05). However, while the microglia increase was largest in the adult condition (p < .05), the astrocyte increase was largest in the young brain (p < .05). Further, while the astrocyte response to 50 day CTX persisted for at least fourteen days (p < .05), the response to 10 day CTX was only present four days post- CTX. These data suggest microglia and astrocyte responses that vary based on age of injury.