Citation

White E, Pinar C, Bostrom C, Meconi A, Christie BR. J. Neurotrauma 2016; 34(5): 1111-1123.

Affiliation

University of Victoria, Division of Medical Sciences , 3800 Finnerty Road , 3800 Finnerty Road , Victoria, British Columbia, Canada , V8P 5C2 ; brain64@uvic.ca.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/neu.2016.4638

PMID

27735217

Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is becoming recognized as a significant concern in modern society. In particular, juveniles are being increasingly seen as a vulnerable time period for mTBI, as this is the final developmental period for the brain and typically involves robust synaptic reorganization and axonal myelination. Another issue that is being hotly debated is whether mTBI differentially impacts the male and female brain. To examine the impact of mTBI in the juvenile brain, we measured hippocampal synaptic plasticity using a closed-head mTBI model in male and female Long-Evans rats (25-28 days of age) at either one hour, one day, seven days, or 28 days post-injury. In female rats, the DG region ipsilateral to the impact showed a significant reduction in long-term potentiation (LTP) at one day which persisted to 28 days following injury. In male rats, the deficit in LTP was maximal in the CA1 and DG subfields ipsilateral to the impact site at seven days post-injury, but these deficits did not persist to 28 days post-injury. These data indicate that mTBI can produce more immediate and persistent impairments in synaptic plasticity in the female brain.

Language: en