Journal article

Traumatic Brain Injury Results in Cellular, Structural and Functional Changes Resembling Motor Neuron Disease

David K Wright, Shijie Liu, Chris van der Poel, Stuart J McDonald, Rhys D Brady, Lily Taylor, Li Yang, Andrew J Gardner, Roger Ordidge, Terence J O'Brien, Leigh A Johnston, Sandy R Shultz

CEREBRAL CORTEX | OXFORD UNIV PRESS INC | Published : 2017

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been suggested to increase the risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). However, this link remains controversial and as such, here we performed experimental moderate TBI in rats and assessed for the presence of ALS-like pathological and functional abnormalities at both 1 and 12 weeks post-injury. Serial in-vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated that rats given a TBI had progressive atrophy of the motor cortices and degeneration of the corticospinal tracts compared with sham-injured rats. Immunofluorescence analyses revealed a progressive reduction in neurons, as well as increased phosphorylated transactive response DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-..

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Grants

Awarded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council


Awarded by Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative project


Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia


Funding Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a fellowship to SS from the Canadian Institute of Health Research, and grants to SS and TOB from the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (grant numbers 1062653, 1006077), the Victorian Neurotrauma Initiative project (grant number DNP13), and Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia.