Bradykinin preconditioning modulates aquaporin-4 expression after spinal cord ischemic injury in rats

The study investigated whether bradykinin (BK) preconditioning could regulate the expression of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) using an in vivo transient spinal cord ischemia model in rats. BK was infused continuously via the left femoral artery with infusion pump for 15 min (10 µg/kg/min) then we induced ischemia for 20 min and reperfusion for 24 and 72 h respectively. The results demonstrated that the central part of the white matter exhibited loss of perivascular AQP4 and showed a partial recovery toward 72 h of reperfusion. The border zone of white matter was different from the central part of the white matter by showing no loss of perivascular AQP4 at 24 h of reperfusion but rather a slight increase. BK significantly reduced the expression level of AQP4 protein in the white matter, but it had none of this effect in the gray matter region at 72 h post-reperfusion. There was no difference in AQP4 protein levels between BK group and control group at the two above-mentioned spinal cord regions at 24 h after reperfusion. In addition, the changes in AQP4 protein induced by BK preconditioning were obvious at 72 h after reperfusion, which were accompanied by a reduction of spinal cord edema. Our results demonstrated that the expression of AQP4 protein after spinal cord ischemia/reperfusion was region-specific, time-dependent and also indicated that the attenuation of AQP4 expression induced by BK could be one of the important molecular mechanisms in physiopathology of spinal cord ischemic edema.