Glial AP1 promotes early TBI recovery but chronically drives tauopathy

Abstract

The emergence of degenerative disease after traumatic brain injury is often described as an acceleration of normal age-related processes. Whether similar molecular processes occur in injury and in age is unclear. Here we identify a functionally dynamic and lasting transcriptional response in glia, mediated by the conserved transcription factor AP1. In the early post-TBI period, glial AP1 is essential for recovery, ensuring brain integrity and animal survival. In sharp contrast, chronic AP1 activation promotes human tau pathology, tissue loss, and mortality. We show a similar process activates in healthy brains with age. Importantly, AP1 activity is present in moderate human TBI, decades after injury, and associates with microglial activation and tauopathy. Our data provide key molecular insight into glia, highlighting that the same molecular process drives dynamic and contradictory glia behavior in TBI, first acting to protect but chronically promoting disease.