Growth Hormone Increases BDNF and mTOR Expression in Specific Brain Regions after Photothrombotic Stroke in Mice

Figure 1

The effect of recombinant human growth factor (r-hGH) treatment poststroke on uncleaved immature form of brain derived neurotrophic factor (pro-BDNF, p-BDNF) expression. (a) Sagittal diagram shows the location of photothrombotic stroke induction (red area) at Bregma 0.0 mm. The black lines represent the location of tissue collection from the peri-infarct cortex at Bregma 0.0 mm as well as the hippocampus and thalamus at Bregma -1.5 mm. Coronal slices (mid and right panels) are also shown at 0.0 mm with peri-infarct region and -1.5 mm with hippocampus and thalamus regions. Red circles represent the area selected for western blot analyses. (b) Representative blots of pro-BDNF and β-actin in the top panels for peri-infarct, hippocampus, and thalamus. Loading controls were performed by loading equal amounts of total protein and also were normalized to β-actin. Levels were expressed as a fold change (FC) of for each group relative to the mean of the Sham+Saline group (dotted line), shown in the bottom panels for each location. We found a significant increase in pro-BDNF within the peri-infarct, hippocampus, and thalamus in stroked mice treated with r-hGH (blue squares) compared with saline (red circles). , 2-tailed t-test.

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