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Temporal profiles of axonal injury following impact acceleration traumatic brain injury in rats—a comparative study with diffusion tensor imaging and morphological analysis

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Abstract

Traumatic axonal injury (TAI) plays a major role in the development of neurological impairments after traumatic brain injury (TBI), but it is commonly difficult to evaluate it precisely and early with conventional histological biomarkers, especially when the patients experience short-term survival after TBI. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has shown some promise in detecting TAI, but longitudinal studies on the compromised white matter with DTI at early time points (≤72 h) following impact acceleration TBI are still absent. In the present study, rats were subjected to the Marmarou model and imaged with DTI at 3, 12, 24, and 72 h (n = 5 each) post-injury. Using a region-of-interest-based approach, the regions of interest including the corpus callosum, bilateral external capsule, internal capsule, and pyramidal tract were studied. Two DTI parameters, fraction anisotropy and axial diffusivity, were significantly reduced from 3 to 72 h in each region after trauma, corresponding to the gradient of axonal damage demonstrated by immunohistochemical staining of β-amyloid precursor protein and neurofilament light chain. Remarkably, DTI changes predicted the approximate time in the acute phase following TBI. These results indicate that the temporal profiles of diffusion parameters in DTI may be able to provide a tool for early diagnosis of TAI following impact acceleration TBI.

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Abbreviations

TBI:

Traumatic brain injury

TAI:

Traumatic axonal injury

DTI:

Diffusion tensor imaging

β-APP:

β-Amyloid precursor protein

NF:

Neurofilament

ARBs:

Axonal retraction balls

AD:

Axial diffusivity

FA:

Fraction anisotropy

ADC:

Apparent diffusion coefficient

RD:

Radial diffusivity

ROIs:

Regions of interest

CC:

Corpus callosum

IC:

Internal capsule

LIC:

Left internal capsule

RIC:

Right internal capsule

EC:

External capsule

LEC:

Left external capsule

REC:

Right external capsule

PY:

Pyramidal tract

LPY:

Left pyramidal tract

RPY:

Right pyramidal tract

HP:

Hippocampus

TBS:

Tris-buffered saline

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars from State Education Ministry and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 30870674, 20921004, and 31070961) and partly by the Research Foundation for the Key Laboratory of Neuroscience and Neuroengineering from South Central University for Nationalities (XJS09001).

Conflict of interest

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Shangxun Li, Jingjun Xing, Yijie Duan & Yiwu Zhou

  2. Wuhan Institute for Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, South Central University for Nationalities, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yan Sun, Bin Feng & Jiapei Dai

  3. State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Dai Shan & Hao Lei

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  1. Shangxun Li
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Correspondence to Jiapei Dai, Hao Lei or Yiwu Zhou.

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Li, S., Sun, Y., Shan, D. et al. Temporal profiles of axonal injury following impact acceleration traumatic brain injury in rats—a comparative study with diffusion tensor imaging and morphological analysis. Int J Legal Med 127, 159–167 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-012-0712-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-012-0712-8

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