The expression of Wnt signaling gene after spinal cord injury in rats

English Keywords:Spinal cord injury  Wnt-1  β-catenin  Glycogen synthase kinase-3β

English Abstract:

  【Abstract】 Objective：To observe the changes of expression of Wnt signaling gene Wnt-1，β-catenin and glycogen synthase kinase-3β（GSK-3β） at different time period following spinal cord injury in rats.Method：Fifty adult female SD rats were randomly divided into two groups：the sham group（only laminectomy，n=25） and the spinal cord injury（SCI） group（n=25）.SCI model was established by hitting T10 spinal cord with NYU impactor in the force of 10g×5cm.The total RNA of the spinal cord tissue was extracted for the examination of the mRNA expression of Wnt-1，β-catenin and GSK-3β by using RT-PCR at the 1，3，5，7 and 14 days after spine injury or laminectomy.Result：In the SCI group，the expression of Wnt-1 and β-catenin mRNA had a notable increase at 1 and 3 days after injury，then the expression began to decrease at 5 days after injury and it was almost back to normal after 14 days.GSK-3β mRNA showed low expression at 1 and 3 days after injury and the expression began to increase at 5 days later.The lower expression of Wnt-1，β-catenin and GSK-3β was observed in the sham group and presented no significant difference in the expressions among the different time periods（P>0.05）.Conclusion：The expression changes of Wnt-1，β-catenin and GSK-3β　mRNA after spinal cord injury suggest that Wnt signaling may play an important role in the neural regeneration after spinal cord injury.