Traumatic brain injury models in rats

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is induced in the brain by external forces such as traffic accidents and heat trauma. Death and disability are induced by the TBI. Indeed, worldwide, about 10 million people are annually deaths or hospitalizations annually by the TBI exposures. In addition, about 57 million exposed to brain injury after TBI annually (Xiong et al. 2013). There is no direct treatment method for the TBI. After the TBI, different pathological processes such as oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis are induced by the brain injury. Hence, investigations of new treatment methods in rodent models have important role for inhibition of the pathological processes of human. Marmarou method has been used to make a diffuse head trauma (Marmarou et al. 1994) and it is popular for induction of TBI in rats. Before induction of TBI, the animals should anesthetized by anesthetics such as ketamine and xylazine combination. The animals are placed in prone position on the trauma table under the anesthesia. After skin incision, a steel disc (10 mm X 3 mm) is placed midline between coronal and lambdoid sutures on the animal’s skull, and a 250-300 g weight is freely dropped through a cylindrical tube, with 19 mm inner diameter, from 2 m height onto the head of the animal (Marmarou et al. 1994). In the presentation, a selection of the principal models is described and the model was compared

Keywords

• Traumatic brain injury,Apoptosis,Rodents,Inflammation

References

1. Marmarou A, Foda MA, Brink WVB, Campbell J, Kita H, Demetriadou K. 1994. A new model of diffuse brain injury in rats. J Neurosurg 80:291-300.
2. Xiong Y, Mahmood A, Chopp M. 2013. Animal models of traumatic brain injury. Nat Rev Neurosci. 14:128-142.