Braeckman Kim, Descamps Benedicte, Vanhove Christian
Infinity lab, Medical Imaging and Signal Processing Group, Ghent University;
Infinity lab, Medical Imaging and Signal Processing Group, Ghent University.
J Vis Exp. 2019 Aug 14(150). doi: 10.3791/60012.
Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most common type of acquired brain injury. Since patients with traumatic brain injury show a tremendous variability and heterogeneity (age, gender, type of trauma, other possible pathologies, etc.), animal models play a key role in unraveling factors that are limitations in clinical research. They provide a standardized and controlled setting to investigate the biological mechanisms of injury and repair following TBI. However, not all animal models mimic the diffuse and subtle nature of mTBI effectively. For example, the commonly used controlled cortical impact (CCI) and lateral fluid percussion injury (LFPI) models make use of a craniotomy to expose the brain and induce widespread focal trauma, which are not commonly seen in mTBI. Therefore, these experimental models are not valid to mimic mTBI. Thus, an appropriate model should be used to investigate mTBI. The Marmarou weight drop model for rats induces similar microstructural alterations and cognitive impairments as seen in patients who sustain mild trauma; therefore, this model was selected for this protocol. Conventional computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans commonly show no damage following a mild injury, because mTBI induces often only subtle and diffuse injuries. With diffusion weighted MRI, it is possible to investigate microstructural properties of brain tissue, which can provide more insight into the microscopic alterations following mild trauma. Therefore, the goal of this study is to obtain quantitative information of a selected region-of-interest (i.e., hippocampus) to follow up disease progression after obtaining a mild and diffuse brain injury.
轻度创伤性脑损伤（mTBI）是获得性脑损伤最常见的类型。由于创伤性脑损伤患者表现出极大的变异性和异质性（年龄、性别、创伤类型、其他可能的病理状况等），动物模型在揭示临床研究中的限制因素方面发挥着关键作用。它们提供了一个标准化和可控的环境来研究创伤性脑损伤后损伤和修复的生物学机制。然而，并非所有动物模型都能有效模拟mTBI的弥漫性和微妙性质。例如，常用的控制性皮质撞击（CCI）和侧方流体冲击伤（LFPI）模型利用开颅手术暴露大脑并引发广泛的局灶性创伤，而这些在mTBI中并不常见。因此，这些实验模型无法有效模拟mTBI。所以，应该使用合适的模型来研究mTBI。大鼠的 Marmarou 重量下降模型会引发与轻度创伤患者类似的微观结构改变和认知障碍；因此，本方案选择了该模型。传统的计算机断层扫描和磁共振成像（MRI）扫描在轻度损伤后通常显示无损伤，因为mTBI往往仅引发细微和弥漫性损伤。通过扩散加权MRI，可以研究脑组织的微观结构特性，这能更深入了解轻度创伤后的微观改变。因此，本研究的目的是在造成轻度弥漫性脑损伤后，获取选定感兴趣区域（即海马体）的定量信息，以跟踪疾病进展。
