Potential Progression Mechanism and Key Genes in Early Stage of mTBI

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (rmTBI), and the lack of sensitive diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for rmTBI leads to long-term sequelae after injury. The purpose of this study is to identify key genes of rmTBI and find the potential progression mechanism in early stage of mTBI. We downloaded the gene expression profiles of GSE2871 from Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) datasets. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened from the cerebral cortex of rats 24 hours after smTBI, and these DEGs were then subjected to GO enrichment analysis, KEGG pathway analysis, PPI analysis, and hub analysis. Key genes were identified as the most significantly expressed genes and had a higher degree of connectivity from hub genes. By using homemade metal pendulum impact equipment and a multiple regression discriminant equation to assess the severity of rats after injury, smTBI and rmTBI rat models were established in batches, and q-PCR analyses were performed to verify the key genes. The main KEGG pathways were cytokine-cytokine receptor interaction and neuroactive ligand-receptor interaction. SPP1 and C3 were the most significant DEGs, and their connectivity degree was the highest 24 hours after smTBI (logFC > 4; connectivity degree ＞15). The q-PCR analyses were performed 24 hours and 14 days after mTBI. The results showed that SPP1 and C3 were significantly upregulated in smTBI and in rmTBI at 24 hours after injury compared with their levels in sham-injured rats, and the phenomenon persisted 14 days after injury. Notably, 14 days after injury, both of these genes were significantly upregulated in the rmTBI group compared with the smTBI. These pathways and genes identified could help understanding the development in mTBI.