CHIMERA (Closed Head Impact Model of Engineered Rotational Acceleration) is a recently described animal model of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that primarily produces diffuse axonal injury (DAI) characterized by white matter inflammation and axonal damage. CHIMERA was specifically designed to reliably generate a variety of TBI severities using precise and quantifiable biomechanical inputs in a n...

In the June issue, Edlow et al used a cutting edge imaging tool to demonstrate tracts in the autopsied brain of a victim of traumatic coma (1). Histologic study of the same brain showed widespread axonal damage in keeping with the long-standing understanding that closed head injury results in diffuse axonal injury throughout the brain (2). The imaging analysis showed, however, that only 1 set o...

Morphology in diffuse axonal injury (DAI) by lateral head rotation was investigated. SD rats were divided into injury (n=9) and sham (n=3) groups. A device was used to produce lateral rotational acceleration of the rats' heads. At different survival times three rats were killed for light and electron microscopic examination of the brain tissue. Sagittal sections were made from medulla oblongata...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that inflammation, demyelination, oligodendrocyte loss, gliosis, axonal injury and neurodegeneration are the main histopathological hallmarks of the disease. Although MS was classically thought as a demyelinating disease, but axonal injury occurs commonly in acute inflammatory lesions. In MS mi...

stem cell therapy can be useful for spinal cord injury (sci). induced pluripotent stem cells (ipscs) are generated by reprogramming mature, fully differentiated cells into a pluripotent state. the ability to generate pluripotent cells from adult somatic cells without the need for an embryo was a major development in stem cell biology. ipscs were established from mouse fibroblasts and demonstrat...

Calcium-induced, calpain-mediated proteolysis (CMSP) has recently been implicated to the pathogenesis of diffuse (traumatic) axonal injury (TAI). Some studies suggested that subaxolemmal CMSP may contribute to axolemmal permeability (AP) alterations observed in TAI. Seeking direct evidence for this premise we investigated whether subaxolemmal CMSP may contribute to axolemmal permeability altera...

Traumatic axonal injury (TAI) is a consistent component of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and is associated with much of its morbidity. Little is known regarding the long-term retrograde neuronal consequences of TAI and/or the potential that TAI could lead to anterograde axonal reorganization and repair. To investigate the repertoire of anterograde and retrograde responses triggered by TIA, Thy1-...