A novel model of mild traumatic brain injury for juvenile rats

Richelle Mychasiuk, Allyson Farran, Mariana Angoa-Perez, Denise Briggs, Donald Kuhn, Michael J. Esser

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

81 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite growing evidence that childhood represents a major risk period for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) from sports-related concussions, motor vehicle accidents, and falls, a reliable animal model of mTBI had previously not been developed for this important aspect of development. The modified weight-drop technique employs a glancing impact to the head of a freely moving rodent transmitting acceleration, deceleration, and rotational forces upon the brain. When applied to juvenile rats, this modified weight-drop technique induced clinically relevant behavioural outcomes that were representative of post-concussion symptomology. The technique is a rapidly applied procedure with an extremely low mortality rate, rendering it ideal for high-throughput studies of therapeutics. In addition, because the procedure involves a mild injury to a closed head, it can easily be used for studies of repetitive brain injury. Owing to the simplistic nature of this technique, and the clinically relevant biomechanics of the injury pathophysiology, the modified weight-drop technique provides researchers with a reliable model of mTBI that can be used in a wide variety of behavioural, molecular, and genetic studies.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere51820
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Visualized Experiments
Volume2014
Issue number94
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Dec 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Childhood
  • Concussion
  • Issue 94
  • Neuroscience
  • Repetitive brain injury
  • Rodent
  • Translational research

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