Bioinformatics analysis of gene expression profiles in the rat cerebral cortex following traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious neurodisorder commonly caused by sports related events or violence. It is the leading cause of disability in people under 40 . AIM: In order to elucidate the molecular mechanism of the secondary injury afterTBI. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, we downloaded gene expression profile on TBI model with sham controls for gene set enrich - ment analysis and pathway analysis. RESULTS: At a q-value of 5%, 361 genes were up-regulated and 373 were down-regulated in samples obtained at 48 hours after TBI. Func - tional analyses revealed that steroid biosynthe - sis, cell cycle, metal ion transport, inflammation and apoptosis were significantly dysregulated during the late period after trauma. In addition, MAPK3 (mitogen-activated protein kinase 3), was identified as the hub node in the protein- protein interaction (PPI) network constructed by the differentially expressed genes (DEGs). CONCLUSIONS: Further elucidation of genes and proteins in our study may reveal their poten - tial as novel therapeutic targets.