Restorative Neuroscience Laboratory, Center for Integrated Research in Cognitive and Neural Sciences, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901, USA.
Restor Neurol Neurosci. 2012;30(4):291-302. doi: 10.3233/RNN-2012-110196.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health concern today and effective treatments must be developed in order to combat the numerous TBIs that occur each year. Multiple b-vitamins have been shown to have neuroprotective effects, however, folic acid (B9) has not been widely studied. The current study examined two different doses in a rodent model of controlled cortical impact (CCI) TBI.
Sham procedures or a unilateral parietal controlled cortical impact injury was induced. Rats were administered either vehicle or folic acid in an 80 μg/kg or 800 μg/kg dose. Rats were tested on the bilateral tactile adhesive removal task, rotarod task and the Morris water maze. Brains were examined to determine lesion size and neuronal loss.
Neither of the folic acid-treated groups showed improvement on any behavioral task or anatomical measure post-CCI and the high dose group had increased neuronal loss compared to the vehicle. Administration of the high dose in sham animals resulted in some behavioral dysfunction and significant neuronal loss.
The results from this study suggest that folic acid may not represent an effective avenue for treatment and that higher doses may actually be detrimental following TBI.
创伤性脑损伤（TBI）是当今一个主要的健康关注点，必须开发有效的治疗方法，以应对每年发生的大量 TBI。多种维生素 B 已被证明具有神经保护作用，但叶酸（B9）尚未得到广泛研究。本研究在控制皮质撞击（CCI）TBI 的啮齿动物模型中检查了两种不同剂量。
进行假手术或单侧顶叶皮质控制撞击损伤。大鼠给予载体或叶酸 80μg/kg 或 800μg/kg 剂量。大鼠在双侧触觉胶去除任务、转棒任务和 Morris 水迷宫上进行测试。检查大脑以确定损伤大小和神经元丢失。
两种叶酸处理组在 CCI 后任何行为任务或解剖测量上均未显示改善，高剂量组的神经元丢失比载体组增加。在假动物中给予高剂量会导致一些行为功能障碍和明显的神经元丢失。
本研究的结果表明，叶酸可能不是一种有效的治疗途径，而且在 TBI 后，更高的剂量实际上可能有害。
