title: A novel model of mild traumatic brain injury for juvenile rats.
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.
authors.affiliation: Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary; r.mychasiuk@uleth.ca.
authors.forename: Richelle
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mychasiuk
authors.affiliation: Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary.
authors.forename: Allyson
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Farran
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine & John D. Dingell VA Medical Center.
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Angoa-Perez
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine & John D. Dingell VA Medical Center.
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine & John D. Dingell VA Medical Center.
authors.forename: Donald
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kuhn
authors.affiliation: Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Esser
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D012399:Rotation