Mychasiuk Richelle, Farran Allyson, Angoa-Perez Mariana, Briggs Denise, Kuhn Donald, Esser Michael J
Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary;
Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary.
J Vis Exp. 2014 Dec 8(94):51820. doi: 10.3791/51820.
Despite growing evidence that childhood represents a major risk period for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) from sports-related concussions, motor vehicle accidents, and falls, a reliable animal model of mTBI had previously not been developed for this important aspect of development. The modified weight-drop technique employs a glancing impact to the head of a freely moving rodent transmitting acceleration, deceleration, and rotational forces upon the brain. When applied to juvenile rats, this modified weight-drop technique induced clinically relevant behavioural outcomes that were representative of post-concussion symptomology. The technique is a rapidly applied procedure with an extremely low mortality rate, rendering it ideal for high-throughput studies of therapeutics. In addition, because the procedure involves a mild injury to a closed head, it can easily be used for studies of repetitive brain injury. Owing to the simplistic nature of this technique, and the clinically relevant biomechanics of the injury pathophysiology, the modified weight-drop technique provides researchers with a reliable model of mTBI that can be used in a wide variety of behavioural, molecular, and genetic studies.
尽管越来越多的证据表明，儿童期是因与运动相关的脑震荡、机动车事故和跌倒导致轻度创伤性脑损伤（mTBI）的主要风险期，但此前尚未针对这一重要发育阶段开发出可靠的mTBI动物模型。改良后的重物坠落技术通过对自由活动的啮齿动物头部进行斜向撞击，将加速、减速和旋转力传递至大脑。当应用于幼年大鼠时，这种改良后的重物坠落技术可诱导出具有临床相关性的行为结果，这些结果代表了脑震荡后的症状。该技术是一种实施迅速且死亡率极低的方法，使其成为治疗学高通量研究的理想选择。此外，由于该操作涉及对闭合头部的轻度损伤，它可轻松用于重复性脑损伤的研究。鉴于此技术的简单性以及损伤病理生理学的临床相关生物力学特性，改良后的重物坠落技术为研究人员提供了一种可靠的mTBI模型，可用于广泛的行为、分子和基因研究。
