Abstract

Ephrin (Eph) receptors are the largest family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and their membrane bound ligands, The Eph plays an important role in formation of spines with normal morpholog and synaptic plasticity. However, the Eph receptors expression in spinal tissue with spinal cord injury (SCI) was unclear to have little regarding molecular studies; thus, the present study aims to investigate changes from EphB3 receptors in spinal tissue of rats with injured spinal cord on mRNA level and protein level by semi-quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and western blot, respectively. It was found that EphB3 receptors were significantly up-regulated in SCI group in comparison to the control group on mRNA level. On protein level, EphB3 receptors were also highly increased in SCI group compared with control group. These results suggested that decreased EphB3 expression might also become a potential target in the treatment of SCI in future.

Key word: Spinal cord injury, Ephrin B3 (EphB3) receptors, qRT-PCR, Ephrin B (EphB), western blot.