Age-Dependent Responses Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a growing health concern worldwide that affects a broad range of the population. As TBI is the leading cause of disability and mortality in children, several preclinical models have been developed using rodents at a variety of different ages; however, key brain maturation events are overlooked that leave some age groups more or less vulnerable to injury. Thus, there has been a large emphasis on producing relevant animal models to elucidate molecular pathways that could be of therapeutic potential to help limit neuronal injury and improve behavioral outcome. TBI involves a host of different biochemical events, including disruption of the cerebral vasculature and breakdown of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that exacerbates secondary injuries. A better understanding of age-related mechanism(s) underlying brain injury will aid in establishing more effective treatment strategies aimed at improving restoration and preventing further neuronal loss. This review looks at studies that focus on modeling the adolescent population and highlights the importance of individualized aged therapeutics to TBI.

Optical coherence tomography microscopy in experimental traumatic brain injury

“…Within this interval the apparent damaged area showed no difference between older animals compared with young ones, except for the 24 hr mark, where older animals had larger apparent damaged areas compared with young animals. Two days after the initial TBI, in the aged animal group, we were able to detect a decrease in the apparent lesion area which could show a delayed response in older animals compared with young ones, as already reported by other groups (Brickler, Morton, Hazy, & Theus, 2018; Kumar et al, 2013; Marker et al, 2010). Due to the fact that our OCT setups cannot discriminate individual cells within the newly form scar, our findings suggest that, at least for the acute phase of the TBI, this technique evaluates water content and not reflected patterns due to cell density, as in this period water metabolism varies faster that cellular migration or proliferation (Wu et al, 2020).…”