Weight Drop Models in Traumatic Brain Injury.
Weight drop models in rodents have been used for several decades to advance our understanding of the pathophysiology of traumatic brain injury. Weight drop models have been used to replicate focal cerebral contusion as well as diffuse brain injury characterized by axonal damage. More recently, closed head injury models with free head rotation have been developed to model sports concussions, which feature functional disturbances in the absence of overt brain damage assessed by conventional imaging techniques. Here, we describe the history of development of closed head injury models in the first part of the chapter. In the second part, we describe the development of our own weight drop closed head injury model that features impact plus rapid downward head rotation, no structural brain injury, and long-term cognitive deficits in the case of multiple injuries. This rodent model was developed to reproduce key aspects of sports concussion so that a mechanistic understanding of how long-term cognitive deficits might develop will eventually follow. Such knowledge is hoped to impact athletes and war fighters and others who suffer concussive head injuries by leading to targeted therapies aimed at preventing cognitive and other neurological sequelae in these high-risk groups.
Department of Newborn Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
Brian T
BT
Kalish
Department of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, 02114, USA. mwhalen@mgh.harvard.edu.|Department of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, East Building 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, MA, 02129, USA. mwhalen@mgh.harvard.edu.
Michael J
MJ
Whalen
D000818:Animals; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D051381:Rats; D012377:Rodentia
Closed head injury; Cognitive deficits; Concussion; Diffuse injury; Mice; Mild traumatic brain injury; Morris water maze; Weight drop