Reduced White Matter Damage and Lower Neuroinflammatory Potential of Microglia and Macrophages in Hri/Eif2ak1−/− Mice After Contusive Spinal Cord Injury

• DOI: 10.1002/glia.24669
• Publication Date: 2025-01-06T11:04:53Z
• Authors: Sujata Saraswat Ohri; Scott A. Myers; Benjamin Rood; Brandon L. Brown; Paula M. Chilton; Lukasz Slomnicki; Yu Liu; George Z. Wei; Kariena R. Andres; Divya Mohan; Russell M. Howard; Scott R. Whittemore; Michal Hetman
• Keywords: Integrated stress response; ATF4

Cellular stressors inhibit general protein synthesis while upregulating stress response transcripts and/or proteins. Phosphorylation of the translation factor eIF2α by one several stress-activated kinases is a trigger for such signaling, known as integrated (ISR). The ISR regulates cell survival and function under stress. Here, germline knockout mice were used to determine contributions three major kinases, HRI/EIF2AK1, GCN2/EIF2AK4, PKR//EIF2AK2, pathogenesis moderate contusive spinal cord injury (SCI) at thoracic T9 level. One-day post-injury (dpi), reduced levels peIF2α found in Hri