FIG. 5.

Gross histopathology and regional water content at 7 days after controlled cortical impact (CCI). (A–E) Representative images of cresyl violet staining of the cortex (CTX) and hippocampus (HP) ipsilateral (ipsi) to impact at 7 days post-injury from vehicle (Veh) and IGF-1–treated mice subjected to sham or CCI injury. Sham-injured mice infused with either (A) vehicle or (B) IGF-1 exhibited brain swelling at the craniotomy site, which was not present at the time of surgery. (C) Injured mice treated with vehicle exhibited cortical cavitation and hippocampal cell loss consistent with CCI. (D) The majority of IGF-1–infused brain-injured mice (7 of 10) exhibited characteristic histopathology with minimal or no brain swelling. (E) However, a subset of IGF-1–infused CCI-injured mice (3 of 10) showed distortion of the hippocampus at 7 days post-injury, raising concerns that central infusion of IGF-1 could exacerbate cerebral edema (n = 4 sham-injured/treatment and n = 10 CCI-injured/treatment). Scale bar represents 500 μm. (F) Water content was quantified in mice subjected to CCI injury without cannulation or infusion (CCI), CCI injury with central infusion of vehicle (Veh CCI), or CCI injury with central infusion of 10 μg/day of IGF-1 (IGF-1 CCI; n = 6/group). Comparison by one-way ANOVA revealed infusion of IGF-1 did not result in significant regional cerebral edema; however, a small subset of mice (2 of 6) had markedly increased water content in the ipsilateral (ipsi) hippocampus. Contralateral (contra). Individual data points are superposed with bars representing mean + SEM. ANOVA, analysis of variance; SEM, standard error of the mean.