Neurodegeneration and Behavioral Changes Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of disability and mortality in patients. Recent studies have shown a significant association between TBI and various neurological, cognitive, emotional, sensory, and motor deficits, which render patients at a higher risk for developing neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we aimed to characterize the cellular and behavioral changes associated with closed head injury in rodents. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to a head injury with the skull intact, using a modified version of the weight drop model. All animals were tested for sensorimotor and cognitive behavioral changes prior to and weekly for one month after injury. At the end of each experiment, brains were collected to examine the extent of injury and the presence of cellular damage in the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus using pathogreen staining and LDH assay. Our results have shown that rats with TBI injury displayed significant changes in sensory, motor and cognitive behaviors when compared to their controls. In addition, histological analysis has confirmed that neural degeneration occurred not only in the somatosensory cortex but had spread to the hippocampus as well. These findings suggest that closed head injury is detrimental to the integrity of neural tissue not only at the site of injury but also in deep brain structures.