Traumatic brain injury increased IGF-1B mRNA and altered IGF-1 exon 5 and promoter region epigenetic characteristics in the rat pup hippocampus.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of acquired cognitive disability in childhood. Such disability may be blunted by enhancing the brain's endogenous neuroprotective response. An important endogenous neuroprotective response is the insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) mRNA variant, IGF-1B.