Fig. 5.

The time course of caspase-3 (A,B) and caspase-1 (C, D) mRNA expression in rat cortex (A, C) and hippocampus (B, D) 1, 4, 24, and 72 hr after TBI or in sham-operated controls (sham). Levels of mRNA were measured by using semiquantitative RT-PCR as the proportion of individual RT-PCR product mean optical density to GAPDH RT-PCR product optical density of the same RNA sample. mRNA content is expressed as a percentage of sham controls +SEM (n = 5). *p < 0.05; **p < 0.0005; ***p < 0.0001, compared with control, by ANOVA and Dunnett’s test.