Single Administration of Tripeptide α-MSH(11–13) Attenuates Brain Damage by Reduced Inflammation and Apoptosis after Experimental Traumatic Brain Injury in Mice

The mRNA expression of POMC, MC1R and MC4R was measured in contused brain tissue by real-time RT-PCR (n = 10 per group). POMC and MC4R were only slightly changed at any time after trauma (p = n.s.). MC1R increased over time and was elevated 3-fold at 12 h (p<0.001), 2.5-fold at 24 h (p<0.001) and 1.8-fold at 48 h (p = 0.001) after brain trauma compared to naive brain tissue. Similar increases were measured at 12 h (2.8-fold; p = 0.001), 24 h (2.4-fold; p<0.001) and 48 h (2-fold; p = 0.003) compared to 15 min. Data were analyzed using exact Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test and adjusted for multiple comparisons using Bonferroni-Holm. As this is an explorative study p-values are given for descriptive reasons only. All bar charts show mean ± S.D.