Distant neuroinflammation acutely induced by focal brain injury and its control by endocannabinoid system.

Introduction: We studied spatiotemporal features of acute transcriptional inflammatory response induced by a focal brain injury in distant uninjured neuronal tissue and a role of endocannabinoid (eCB) system in its control.

Materials And Methods: A focal excitotoxic lesion was induced by a unilateral injection of kainate in the dorsal hippocampus of awake Wistar rats. During acute post-injury period (3 h and 24 h post-injection), mRNA levels of genes associated with neuroinflammation (Il1b, Il6, Tnf, Ccl2; Cx3cl1, Zc3 h12a, Tgfb1) and eCB receptors of CB1 and CB2 types (Cnr1 and Cnr2) in intact regions of the hippocampus and neocortex were measured using qPCR.