Molecular medicine reports
-
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of mortality in young individuals, and results in motor and cognitive deficiency. Excitotoxicity is an important process during neuronal cell death, which is caused by excessive release of glutamate following TBI. Astrocytic glutamate transporters have a predominant role in maintaining extracellular glutamate concentrations below excitotoxic levels, and glutamate transporter 1 (GLT‑1) may account for >90% of glutamate uptake in the brain. ⋯ The results of the present study demonstrated that administration of harmine significantly attenuated cerebral edema, and improved learning and memory ability. In addition, harmine significantly increased the protein expression of GLT‑1, and markedly attenuated the expression levels of interleukin‑1β and tumor necrosis factor‑α, thereby attenuating apoptotic neuronal death in the hippocampus. These results provided in vivo evidence that harmine may exert neuroprotective effects by synergistically reducing excitotoxicity and inflammation following TBI.