Modeling Changes in Cellular Micro-Environment in Mild to Moderate Head Trauma

Abstract

Our work aims to connect and model multiple small, inter-related tissue injuries as a consequence of mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI). It has been shown that frontal and temporal lobes are vulnerable regions for brain traumatic injury. A brain injury from a blow or high-speed impact can cause undersurface of the frontal and temporal lobes to deform against the anterior and cranial fossae. This deformation can often trigger damage to the cerebral vasculature, which is ill-understood and can result in chronic damage to larger vessels over time. These physiological injuries can be manifested psychologically; such as patients’ sleep-wake disturbances. The connection between mTBI and the cause of sleep-issues is found to be associated with vascular epithelial injuries to the pineal gland that lies directly at the anterior to the tentorial ridge. In this research, we are modeling brain trauma with two injuries tissue gliding between temporal, frontal and parietal lobes. The frontal lobe may explain the psychological problem and parietal may explain the large venous injury, while the midbrain including pineal and hypothalamus injury may explain sleep issues. Although white matter connectivity is disturbed, the literature is not enough for us to include that within our cell injury model. Learning from these devastating symptoms of mTBI, it is critical to push for more scientific researches to understand the mTBI and offer psychosocial as well as neurobiological interventions