title: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Produces Long-Lasting Deficits in Synaptic Plasticity in the Female Juvenile Hippocampus.
abstract: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is becoming recognized as a significant concern in modern society. In particular, youth is being increasingly seen as a vulnerable time period for mTBI, as this is the final developmental period for the brain and typically involves robust synaptic reorganization and axonal myelination. Another issue that is being hotly debated is whether mTBI differentially impacts the male and female brain. To examine the impact of mTBI in the juvenile brain, we measured hippocampal synaptic plasticity using a closed-head mTBI model in male and female Long-Evans rats (25-28 days of age) at either 1 h, 1 day, 7 days, or 28 days post-injury. In female rats, the dentate gyrus (DG) region ipsilateral to the impact showed a significant reduction in long-term potentiation (LTP) at 1 day, which persisted to 28 days following injury. In male rats, the deficit in LTP was maximal in the CA1 and DG subfields ipsilateral to the impact site 7 days post-injury; however, these deficits did not persist to 28 days post-injury. These data indicate that mTBI can produce more immediate and persistent impairments in synaptic plasticity in the female brain.
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Medical Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Victoria , Victoria, British Columbia, Canada .
authors.forename: Emily R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Medical Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Victoria , Victoria, British Columbia, Canada .
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pinar
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Medical Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Victoria , Victoria, British Columbia, Canada .
authors.forename: Crystal A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Bostrom
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Medical Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Victoria , Victoria, British Columbia, Canada .
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Meconi
authors.affiliation: 1 Division of Medical Sciences and Neuroscience Graduate Program, University of Victoria , Victoria, British Columbia, Canada .|2 Centre for Brain Health and Program in Neuroscience, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada .|3 Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, University of British Columbia , Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada .
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Christie
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001924:Brain Concussion / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017774:Long-Term Potentiation / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D020318:Rats, Long-Evans
keywords: gender; hippocampus; long-term potentiation; mTBI; synaptic plasticity