Preliminary Study of Realistic Blast Impact on Cultured Brain Slices
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is frequently caused by blasts that trigger a series of neuronal biochemical changes. Diagnosis of mild TBI caused by blast is challenging, since the damage to brain tissue progresses slowly over time. It is largely unknown how structural damage at tissue level from blast loading impact affects functional activity at variable time scales after the TBI event. This report describes the experimental approach and preliminary results of our study of cultured hippocampal brain slices impacted by explosively generated blast waves with single or multiple impacts in water. The initial results showed that a single blast had no effect on the immunoreactivity level of GluR1, an integral membrane protein belonging to the glutamate-gated ion channel family, whereas a triple blast insult caused a significant reduction in the GluR1synaptic marker compared to submerged control slices. This might be an indication of a dose-dependent effect and warrants further investigation with hippocampal slice samples to better understand blast-induced brain damage.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA614978
Entities
People
- Ben A Bahr
- Lars Piehler
- Marquitta Smith
- Ray Sparks
- Richard Benjamin
- Rohan Banton
- Thuvan Piehler
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory