The potential for animal models to provide insight into mild traumatic brain injury: Translational challenges and strategies

Abstract

Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is a common health problem. There is tremendous variability and heterogeneity in human mTBI, including mechanisms of injury, biomechanical forces, injury severity, spatial and temporal pathophysiology, genetic factors, pre-injury vulnerability and resilience factors, and clinical outcomes. Animal models greatly reduce this variability and heterogeneity, and provide a means to study mTBI in a rigorous, controlled, and efficient manner. Rodent models, in particular, are time- and cost-efficient, and they allow researchers to measure morphological, cellular, molecular, and behavioral variables in a single study. However, inter-species differences in anatomy, m..