Expression of endoplasmic reticulum chaperone ERP29 in the injured spinal cord

Regulation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) chaperone, ERp29, in traumatized rat spinal cord was investigated. Compared to the control, ERp29 expression was down‐regulated at the lesion site 1 d after spinal cord injury. However, ERp29 expression gradually increased from 3 d after the injury and peaked remarkably after 7 d. Two ER chaperones (GRP94 and BiP) showed constantly strong expression levels 1 d after spinal cord injury while the expression levels of the other two (calnexin and PDI) were unchanged. In the case of ERp72, its expression level was increased 1 d after the injury and gradually decreased thereafter. This study suggests that ERp29 expression in the spinal cord after traumatic injury might be associated with the posttraumatic neural survival, playing a role as a molecular chaperone.