The Influence of Glutamate Signaling on Neuroprotective Glial Aromatase Following Traumatic Brain Injury

The following studies were conducted with the aim of elucidating unanswered questions concerning the expression of glial aromatase, E2, and neuroprotection. Specifically, in Chapter 2 I begin with the quantification of changes in expression of neural aromatase and neural E2 following brain injury in zebra finches. In Chapter 3, I present experiments aimed at the investigation of the necessity of glial glutamate transporters GLAST and GLT-1 in the induction of glial aromatase in the zebra finch following mechanical brain injury. Finally, in Chapter 4 I present a set of experiments that examined the downstream effects of injury-induced aromatase on the mRNA and protein expression of the primary glial glutamate transmitter in the cortex, GLT-1.