Xun Wu¹ • Wenxing Cui¹ • Wei Guo¹ • Haixiao Liu¹ • Jianing Luo¹ • Lei Zhao¹ • Hao Guo¹ • Longlong Zheng¹ • Hao Bai¹ • Dayun Feng¹ • Yan Qu ¹

¹ Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710038, China

Abstract

Clinical advances in the treatment of intracranial hemorrhage (ICH) are restricted by the incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms contributing to secondary brain injury. Acrolein is a highly active unsaturated aldehyde which has been implicated in many nervous system diseases. Our results indicated a significant increase in the level of acrolein after ICH in mouse brain. In primary neurons, acrolein induced an increase in mitochondrial fragmentation, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, generation of reactive oxidative species, and release of mitochondrial cytochrome c. Mechanistically, acrolein facilitated the translocation of dynamin-related protein1 (Drp1) from the cytoplasm onto the mitochondrial membrane and led to excessive mitochondrial fission. Further studies found that treatment with hydralazine (an acrolein scavenger) significantly reversed Drp1 translocation and the morphological damage of mitochondria after ICH. In parallel, the neural apoptosis, brain edema, and neurological functional deficits induced by ICH were also remarkably alleviated. In conclusion, our results identify acrolein as an important contributor to the secondary brain injury following ICH. Meanwhile, we uncovered a novel mechanism by which Drp1-mediated mitochondrial oxidative damage is involved in acrolein-induced brain injury.

Keywords

Intracerebral hemorrhage; Secondary brain injury; Acrolein; Drp1; Mitochondrial oxidative damage

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