Investigating the influence of repeated mild traumatic brain injury on sensorimotor deficits and synaptic plasticity in the dentate gyrus of young adult female and male rats
Date
2023
Authors
Seusser, Kirsten
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Abstract
The prevalence of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) has raised a serious public health concern particularly in young adults engaged in contact sports. Using Sprague Dawley rats as a model organism, this study has sought to determine if lateral impact repeated mTBI (LI-RmTBI), a method which induces linear and rotational forces, modulates synaptic plasticity in young adult rats using in-vivo electrophysiological techniques. It also set out to investigate whether significant sex-dependent effects exist, and add to the small pre-existing hippocampal research base of data collected from female rats. While no significant differences in loss of consciousness (righting reflexes), synaptic plasticity (short-term and long-term potentiation), neurotransmitter release (paired-pulse), nor post-synaptic responsiveness (input/output) mediated by LI-RmTBI as a function of sex were observed. Sensorimotor tests (neurological assessment protocols) immediately following mTBIs demonstrated that mTBI groups performed significantly worse than their respective sham controls as the result of mild concussive forces. This result is supportive of the need for additional LIRmTBI experimentation to garner a better understanding of pathophysiological outcomes over a broader range of injury severities. In experimental findings of mTBI examined as a function of sex, significant differences were observed whereby mTBI males fared worse than their female counterparts for acute neurocognitive function. This clearly highlights the need for more favourable inclusion of females within research studies to better understand the diversity of outcomes as a function of sex, and appropriate clinical applications for treatment.