Temporary loss of perivascular aquaporin-4 in white matter after the spinal cord ischemic injury of rats

The study was performed to investigate whether the ischemic gray matter and white matter show distinct patterns of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) expression in the reperfusion phase using an in-vivo transient spinal cord ischemia model in rats. We investigated to the time course of AQP4 expression at the blood-spinal cord interface by the quantitative immunogold and western blots methods. The results showed that disruption of AQP4 anchoring at the perivascular membrane did not lead to a net loss of protein. This is the first systematic and extensive study fully showing AQP4 expression dynamics after transient spinal cord ischemia and the findings are of major clinical and experimental interest.