Brain injuries caused by explosions result in the retraction of neural connections and blood-vessel constriction, reducing oxygen flow to the brain. Researchers have identified proteins and a signalling pathway that link mechanical forces to these harmful changes.
Kit Parker at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues simulated blast forces on rat neurons using devices that abruptly stretched the cells. The authors showed that such forces stimulate transmembrane proteins called integrins, which are connected to the cell's internal skeleton. This stimulation overactivates the Rho–ROCK signalling pathway that normally controls cell contraction. Blocking this pathway decreases neuronal injury.
In a separate study, the same group found that similar mechanisms explain why engineered human vascular tissue constricts when subjected to force. The pathway could be a target for preventive drugs, the authors say.
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How blasts hurt the brain. Nature 475, 426–427 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/475426d
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/475426d
