The Conflicting Role of Caffeine Supplementation on Hyperoxia-Induced Injury on the Cerebellar Granular Cell Neurogenesis of Newborn Rats

Figure 9

Quantification of cerebellar homogenates for postmitotic and mature granule cell-associated mediators of (a) Pax2, (b) NeuroD2, (c) Syp, and (d) Sox2 was performed with qPCR for 3 days’ postnatal oxygen exposure (P3) and recovery (P3_P15) and 5 days’ postnatal oxygen exposure (P5) and recovery (P5_P15), respectively. Acute hyperoxia exposure (deep dark gray bars) decreased the mRNA expression for Pax2 and Syp at P3 and for Pax2 and NeuroD2 at P5. At P15, the reduction of Pax2 persisted after three-day oxygen exposure (P3_P15), evolved after five-day oxygen exposure for Sox2 (P5_P15) or the expression increased of NeuroD2 (P5_P15). Caffeine reverted the altered transcription in comparison to hyperoxia-exposed group (gray bars) for NeuroD2 and Sox2 at P5_15. Caffeine with normoxia (light gray bars) modulated the expression levels in a more differential manner. Data are normalized to the level of rat pups exposed to normoxia at each time point (control 100%, white bars). n =6-8/group. , , , and vs. control; ^## and ^### vs. hyperoxia (ANOVA, Bonferroni’s post hoc test; Kruskal-Wallis, Dunn’s post hoc test; Brown-Forsythe, Dunnett’s post hoc test).