title: Correlation between subacute sensorimotor deficits and brain water content after surgical brain injury in rats.
abstract: Brain edema is a major contributor to poor outcome and reduced quality of life after surgical brain injury (SBI). Although SBI pathophysiology is well-known, the correlation between cerebral edema and neurological deficits has not been thoroughly examined in the rat model of SBI. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine the correlation between brain edema and deficits in standard sensorimotor neurobehavior tests for rats subjected to SBI. Sixty male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to either sham surgery or surgical brain injury via partial frontal lobectomy. All animals were tested for neurological deficits 24 post-SBI and fourteen were also tested 72 h after surgery using seven common behavior tests: modified Garcia neuroscore (Neuroscore), beam walking, corner turn test, forelimb placement test, adhesive removal test, beam balance test, and foot fault test. After assessing the functional outcome, animals were euthanized for brain water content measurement. Surgical brain injury resulted in significantly elevated frontal lobe brain water content 24 and 72 h after surgery compared to that of sham animals. In all behavior tests, significance was observed between sham and SBI animals. However, a correlation between brain water content and functional outcome was observed for all tests except Neuroscore. The selection of behavior tests is critical to determine the effectiveness of therapeutics. Based on this study's results, we recommend using beam walking, the corner turn test, the beam balance test, and the foot fault test since correlations with brain water content were observed at both 24 and 72 h post-SBI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Devin W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: McBride
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA; Department of Physiology, Jinan University School of Medicine, Guangzhou, GuangDong, China.
authors.forename: Yuechun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Prativa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sherchan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Jiping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology & Pharmacology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA; Department of Anesthesiology, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, Loma Linda, CA, USA. Electronic address: jhzhang@llu.edu.
authors.forename: John H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001834:Body Water; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000209:etiology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000737:chemistry*; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D019635:Neurosurgical Procedures; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
keywords: Brain edema; Experimental models; Neurobehavior tests; Rat model; SBI; Surgical brain injury