title: The potential for animal models to provide insight into mild traumatic brain injury: Translational challenges and strategies.
abstract: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common health problem. There is tremendous variability and heterogeneity in human mTBI, including mechanisms of injury, biomechanical forces, injury severity, spatial and temporal pathophysiology, genetic factors, pre-injury vulnerability and resilience factors, and clinical outcomes. Animal models greatly reduce this variability and heterogeneity, and provide a means to study mTBI in a rigorous, controlled, and efficient manner. Rodent models, in particular, are time- and cost-efficient, and they allow researchers to measure morphological, cellular, molecular, and behavioral variables in a single study. However, inter-species differences in anatomy, morphology, metabolism, neurobiology, and lifespan create translational challenges. Although the term "mild" TBI is used often in the pre-clinical literature, clearly defined criteria for mild, moderate, and severe TBI in animal models have not been agreed upon. In this review, we introduce current issues facing the mTBI field, summarize the available research methodologies and previous studies in mTBI animal models, and discuss how a translational research approach may be useful in advancing our understanding and management of mTBI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia. Electronic address: sshultz@unimelb.edu.au.
authors.forename: Sandy R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Shultz
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Microbiology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Stuart J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: McDonald
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Cole
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vonder Haar
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Sciences, The University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meconi
authors.affiliation: Division of Health Sciences, The University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vink
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Exercise Sciences, The University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van Donkelaar
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Sciences, The University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Chand
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Taneja
authors.affiliation: Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Harvard Medical School, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Home Base, A Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital Program, and MassGeneral Hospital for Children™ Sports Concussion Program, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Grant L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Iverson
authors.affiliation: Division of Medical Sciences, The University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Christie
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000070642:Brain Injuries, Traumatic; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical
keywords: Biomarker; Clinical; Concussion; Pre-clinical; Review; Translational research; Treatment