Factors Affecting Blast Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract The overlapping pathologies and functional outcomes of blast-induced TBI (bTBI) and stress-related neurobehavioral disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are significant military health issues. Soldiers are exposed to multiple stressors with or without suffering bTBI, making diagnosis and treatment as well as experimental modeling of bTBI a challenge. In this study we compared anxiety levels of Naive rats to ones that were exposed to each of the following conditions daily for 4 consecutive days: C I: transportation alone; C II: transportation and anesthesia; C III: transportation, anesthesia, and blast sounds; Injured: all three variables plus mild blast overpressure. Following behavioral testing we analyzed sera and select brain regions for protein markers and cellular changes. C I, C II, and C III animals exhibited increased anxiety, but serum corticosterone levels were only significantly elevated in C III and Injured rats. C III and Injured animals also had elevated interferon-γ ...