Modelling traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic epilepsy in rodents

Rhys D Brady; Pablo M Casillas-Espinosa; Denes V Agoston; Edward H Bertram; Alaa Kamnaksh; Bridgette D Semple; Sandy R Shultz

doi:10.1016/j.nbd.2018.08.007

Modelling traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic epilepsy in rodents

Neurobiol Dis. 2019 Mar:123:8-19. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2018.08.007. Epub 2018 Aug 16.

Authors

Rhys D Brady¹, Pablo M Casillas-Espinosa², Denes V Agoston³, Edward H Bertram⁴, Alaa Kamnaksh³, Bridgette D Semple⁵, Sandy R Shultz⁵

Affiliations

¹ Departments of Neuroscience and Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, VIC 3004, Australia; Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia. Electronic address: rhys.brady@monash.edu.
² Departments of Neuroscience and Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, VIC 3004, Australia; Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia. Electronic address: Pablo.Casillas-Espinosa@monash.edu.
³ Anatomy, Physiology & Genetics, Uniformed Services University, Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
⁴ Department of Neurology, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 800394, Charlottesville, VA 22908-0394, USA.
⁵ Departments of Neuroscience and Medicine, Central Clinical School, Monash University, VIC 3004, Australia; Department of Medicine, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, The University of Melbourne, VIC 3052, Australia.

Abstract

Posttraumatic epilepsy (PTE) is one of the most debilitating and understudied consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI). It is challenging to study the effects, underlying pathophysiology, biomarkers, and treatment of TBI and PTE purely in human patients for a number of reasons. Rodent models can complement human PTE studies as they allow for the rigorous investigation into the causal relationship between TBI and PTE, the pathophysiological mechanisms of PTE, the validation and implementation of PTE biomarkers, and the assessment of PTE treatments, in a tightly controlled, time- and cost-efficient manner in experimental subjects known to be experiencing epileptogenic processes. This article will review several common rodent models of TBI and/or PTE, including their use in previous studies and discuss their relative strengths, limitations, and avenues for future research to advance our understanding and treatment of PTE.

Keywords: Posttraumatic epilepsy; Review; Translational research; Traumatic brain injury.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Review

MeSH terms

Animals
Biomarkers
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / complications
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / diagnosis
Brain Injuries, Traumatic / physiopathology*
Disease Models, Animal*
Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic / diagnosis
Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic / etiology
Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic / physiopathology*
Humans
Mice
Rats
Risk Factors
Translational Research, Biomedical

Substances

Biomarkers

Grants and funding

U54 NS100064/NS/NINDS NIH HHS/United States