Increased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor but not neurotrophin-3 mRNA in rat brain after cortical impact injury.

Levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and neurotrophin-3 (NT3) mRNA expression were measured in a rodent model of traumatic brain injury (TBI) following unilateral injury to the cerebral cortex. To obtain reliable data on the co-expression of neurotrophin genes, adjacent coronal sections from the same rat brains were hybridized in situ with BDNF and NT3 cRNA probes. BDNF mRNA increased at 1,3, and 5 hr after unilateral cortical injury in the cortex ipsilateral to the injury site and bilaterally in the dorsal hippocampus. NT3 mRNA did not change significantly following injury. Our results suggest that TBI produces rapid increases in BDNF mRNA expression in rat brain without changes in NT3 mRNA expression, a finding which differs from studies of ischemia and seizures. It is possible that increased levels of BDNF mRNA rather than NT3 are important components of pathophysiological responses to TBI.