Intraventricular injection of basic fibroblast growth factor in rats with traumatic brain injury

Objective To investigate the effect of basic fibroblast growth factor(bFGF)by intraventricular injection on traumatic brain injury(TBI)in rats. Methods Twenty-four adult SD rats were randomly divided into treatment group and control group.TBI model was established by modified Feeneg's method.The treatment group and the control group were intraventricularly injected bFGF and saline 24 h after TBI, respectively.The recovery of limb function was observed by behavior tests (forelimb placing test and beam balance test). After labeling the neural stem cells with bromodeoxyuridine(Brdu),immunohistochemical staining,was employed to measure and compare the expression of Brdu-positive cells in the lateral subventricular zone(SVZ),the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the damage region at 3,7 and 14 d after TBI. Results The grading of forelimb placing test and beam balance test in the 2 groups was significantly different:in the forelimb placing test,statistical significance was found from the 3rd to the 12th d(P<0.05);in the beam balance test,statistical significance was found from the 3rd to the 11th d(P<0.05).Compare with the control group,treatment group showed significantly increased number of Brdu-positive ceils in the bilateral SVZ,the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus and the damage region after TBI(P<0.05).The number of Brdu-positive cells on the damage side was significantly higher than that on the opposite side (P<0.05).The grading of behavior test was negatively correlated to the number of Brdu-positive cells.Conclusions Intraventricular injection of bFGF can increase the proliferation of endogenous neural stem cells and speed up the recovery of limb function in TBI model of rats.dogenous neural stem cells and expidite the restoration of limbs function in the ratmodel of TBI. Key words: Traumatic brain injury; Basic fibroblast growth factor