title: Temporal profiles of axonal injury following impact acceleration traumatic brain injury in rats--a comparative study with diffusion tensor imaging and morphological analysis.
abstract: Traumatic axonal injury (TAI) plays a major role in the development of neurological impairments after traumatic brain injury (TBI), but it is commonly difficult to evaluate it precisely and early with conventional histological biomarkers, especially when the patients experience short-term survival after TBI. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has shown some promise in detecting TAI, but longitudinal studies on the compromised white matter with DTI at early time points (≤72 h) following impact acceleration TBI are still absent. In the present study, rats were subjected to the Marmarou model and imaged with DTI at 3, 12, 24, and 72 h (n = 5 each) post-injury. Using a region-of-interest-based approach, the regions of interest including the corpus callosum, bilateral external capsule, internal capsule, and pyramidal tract were studied. Two DTI parameters, fraction anisotropy and axial diffusivity, were significantly reduced from 3 to 72 h in each region after trauma, corresponding to the gradient of axonal damage demonstrated by immunohistochemical staining of β-amyloid precursor protein and neurofilament light chain. Remarkably, DTI changes predicted the approximate time in the acute phase following TBI. These results indicate that the temporal profiles of diffusion parameters in DTI may be able to provide a tool for early diagnosis of TAI following impact acceleration TBI.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
authors.forename: Shangxun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Dai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.forename: Jingjun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xing
authors.forename: Yijie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Jiapei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lei
authors.forename: Yiwu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D020833:Diffuse Axonal Injury / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D049429:Forensic Pathology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D016900:Neurofilament Proteins