White matter injury in the immature brain: role of interleukin-18

• Inflammation is likely to be important in the pathophysiology of white matter damage in the immature brain. In order to investigate the involvement of interleukin (IL)-18, we subjected 9-day-old IL-18-deficient and wild-type (WT) mice to hypoxia-ischemia (HI) (unilateral carotid ligation and exposure to 10% oxygen) and white matter injury was evaluated after 3 days by immunostaining for myelin basic protein (MBP) and neurofilament (NF). The immunoreactivity of MBP was significantly higher by 92, 49 and 21%, respectively, in subcortical white matter, striatum and thalamus in IL-18-deficient mice versus WT mice following HI. Similarly, there was a more pronounced immunoreactivity of NF by 78% in the subcortical white matter in IL-18 KO versus WT mice. IL-18 was expressed by astrocytes and microglia, whereas the IL-18 receptor was mainly found in astrocytes localized in and around the subventricular white matter. Taken together, these results indicate that release of IL-18 may play an important role in the development of white matter injury in the neonatal brain.

Nyckelord

Animals

Animals

Newborn

Astrocytes/metabolism

Female

Hypoxia-Ischemia

Brain/*metabolism/*pathology

Immunohistochemistry

Interleukin-18/deficiency/*metabolism

Male

Mice

Mice

Knockout

Microglia/metabolism

Myelin Basic Proteins/metabolism

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)