Intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH) is an acute neurological disorder without effective treatment. Mechanisms of acute brain injury after ICH remain to be clarified. Although a few studies suggested a detrimental role for the gelatinase matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-9 in ICH, the relationship between MMP-9 activity and acute brain injury after ICH is not determined. In this study, we first examined the expression of gelatinases in vivo using a collagenase-induced mouse model of ICH. Gel zymography revealed that MMP-9 was activated and upregulated after ICH. In situ zymography showed that gelatinase activity was mostly co-localized with neurons and endothelial cells of the blood vessel matrix. Inhibition with a broad-spectrum metalloproteinase inhibitor GM6001 (100 mg/kg) ameliorated dysregulated gelatinase activity, neutrophil infiltration, production of oxidative stress, brain oedema and degenerating neurons. Functional improvement and a decrease in injury volume were also observed. We provide evidence that MMP-9 may play a deleterious role in acute brain injury within the first 3 days after ICH. Blockade of MMP activity during this critical period may have efficacy as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of acute brain injury after ICH.

Microglia are the immunocompetent cells of the central nervous system. In the physiological setting, their highly motile processes continually survey the local brain parenchyma and transiently contact synaptic elements. Although recent work has shown that the interaction of microglia with synapses contributes to synaptic remodeling during development, the role of microglia in synaptic physiology is just starting to get explored. To assess this question, we employed an electrophysiological approach using two methods to manipulate microglia in culture: organotypic hippocampal brain slices in which microglia were depleted using clodronate liposomes, and cultured hippocampal neurons to which microglia were added. We show here that the frequency of excitatory postsynaptic current increases in microglia-depleted brain slices, consistent with a higher synaptic density, and that this enhancement ensures from the loss of microglia since it is reversed when the microglia are replenished. Conversely, the addition of microglia to neuronal cultures decreases synaptic activity and reduces the density of synapses, spine numbers, surface expression of AMPA receptor (GluA1), and levels of synaptic adhesion molecules. Taken together, our findings demonstrate that non-activated microglia acutely modulate synaptic activity by regulating the number of functional synapses in the central nervous system.

Tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a serine protease that converts inactive plasminogen to active plasmin, is produced in the rat and mouse hippocampus and participates in neuronal plasticity. To help define the role of tPA in the nervous system, we have analyzed the regulation of its expression in the neuronal cell line PC12. In control cultures, tPA activity is exclusively cell-associated, and no activity is measurable in the culture medium. When the cells are treated with depolarizing agents, such as KCI, tPA activity becomes detectable in the medium. The increased secreted tPA activity is not accompanied by an increase in tPA mRNA levels, and it is not blocked by protein synthesis inhibitors. In contrast, tPA release is abolished by Ca2+ channel blockers, suggesting that chemically induced membrane depolarization stimulates the secretion of preformed enzyme. Moreover, KCI has a similar effect in vivo when administered to the murine brain via an osmotic pump: tPA activity increases along the CA2-CA3 regions and dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation. These results demonstrate a neuronal activity-dependent secretory mechanism that can rapidly increase the amount of tPA in neuronal tissue.