Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Traumatic spinal cord injury causes rapid neuronal and vascular injury, and predictive biomarkers are needed to facilitate acute patient management. This study examined the progression of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) biomarkers after spinal cord injury and their ability to predict long-term neurological outcomes in a rodent model, with an empha...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
People with spinal cord injury (SCI) get recurrent infections, such as urinary tract infections (UTIs) and pneumonias, that cause mortality and worsen neurological recovery. Over the past decades, researchers have proposed that post-SCI lymphopenia and decreased lymphocyte function increase susceptibility to infections and worsen neurological outco...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Paresis after spinal cord injury (SCI) is caused by damage to upper and lower motoneurons (LMNs) and may differentially impact neurological recovery. This prospective monocentric longitudinal observational study investigated the extent and severity of LMN dysfunction and its impact on upper extremity motor recovery after acute cervical SCI. Patholo...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Protein kinase R (PKR)-like endoplasmic reticulum kinase (PERK) is a major signal transducer of the endoplasmic reticulum stress response (ERSR) pathway. Outcomes of PERK activation range from abrogating ER stress to induction of cell death, dependent on its level, duration, and cellular context. Current data demonstrate that after mouse spinal cor...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Chronic, often intractable, pain is caused by neuropathic conditions such as traumatic peripheral nerve injury (PNI) and spinal cord injury (SCI). These conditions are associated with alterations in gene and protein expression correlated with functional changes in somatosensory neurons having cell bodies in dorsal root ganglia (DRGs). Most studies ...
Published in Journal of Neurotrauma
Spinal cord injury (SCI) above the lumbosacral level often leads to dysfunction of the lower urinary tract (LUT) including detrusor hyper-reflexia, wherein bladder compliance is low, baseline pressures are increased, and filling is accompanied by numerous non-voiding contractions (NVCs) referred to as neurogenic detrusor overactivity. Here, we inve...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Blood-based brain biomarkers (BBM) such as glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and ubiquitin carboxy-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) have potential to aid in the diagnosis of concussion. Recently developed point-of-care test devices would enable BBMs to be measured in field settings such military and sport environments within minutes of a suspici...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Military service members are at increased risk for mental health issues, and comorbidity with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common. Largely overlapping symptoms between conditions suggest a shared pathophysiology. The present work investigates the associations among white matter microstructure, psychological functioning, and serum neuroacti...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients are at high risk for disruption of the gut microbiome. Previously, we have demonstrated that broad-spectrum antibiotic exposure after TBI drastically alters the gut microbiota and modulates neuroinflammation, neurogenesis, and long-term fear memory. However, these data did not determine if the impact of antibio...
Published in Journal of neurotrauma
Mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC)-derived small extracellular vesicles (sEVs) possess therapeutic potential for treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The essential role of micro ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) underlying the beneficial effects of MSC-derived sEVs for treatment of TBI remains elusive. The present study was designed to investigate...
