Articles

Intracerebroventricular administration of chondroitinase ABC reduces acute edema after traumatic brain injury in mice

Finan, John D.; Cho, Frances S.; Kernie, Steven G.; Morrison III, Barclay

Background
Brain edema is a significant challenge facing clinicians managing severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the acute period. If edema reaches a critical point, it leads to runaway intracranial hypertension that, in turn, leads to severe morbidity or death if left untreated. Clinical data on the efficacy of standard interventions is mixed. The goal of this study was to validate a novel therapeutic strategy for reducing post-traumatic brain edema in a mouse model. Prior in vitro work reported that the brain swells due to coupled electrostatic and osmotic forces generated by large, negatively charged, immobile molecules in the matrix that comprises brain tissue. Chondroitinase ABC (ChABC) digests chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, a molecule that contributes to this negative charge. Therefore, we administered ChABC by intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection after controlled cortical impact TBI in the mouse and measured associated changes in edema.

Results
Almost half of the edema induced by injury was eliminated by ChABC treatment.

Conclusions
ICV administration of ChABC may be a novel and effective method of treating post-traumatic brain edema in the acute period.

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Also Published In

Title
BMC Research Notes
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13104-016-1968-8

More About This Work

Academic Units
Pediatrics
Biomedical Engineering
Published Here
January 30, 2017