Date of Award
6-15-2024
Document Type
Masters Thesis
Degree Name
M.S. in Biological Sciences
Organizational Unit
College of Natural Science and Mathematics, Biological Sciences
First Advisor
Daniel A. Linseman
Second Advisor
J. Todd Blankenship
Third Advisor
Ann M. Wehman
Keywords
Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Alzheimer's disease, Dementia
Abstract
Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are a common form of head injury, with mild TBIs (mTBIs) making up 75-90% of the TBI severity scale. It’s been suggested that repetitive mild TBIs (rmTBIs) may enhance effects of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). With dementia linking TBI and AD together, we investigated the memory hub of the brain - the hippocampus. Astrocytes and microglia are two glial cells that respond to neuroinflammation and therefore imaged in hippocampal regions of the 3xTg-AD mouse brain. We hypothesized that AD brain pathology (i.e., neuroinflammation) would be accelerated in 3xTg-AD mice following rmTBIs early in life. Analyses revealed that rmTBIs didn’t enhance the extent of gliosis in AD mice. We conclude that an increased risk of neurodegeneration is not a predetermined outcome from rmTBIs early in life. A future investigation of the expression of specific receptors (e.g., TREM2) and neuronal loss can better illustrate the role of glial cells.
Copyright Date
6-2024
Copyright Statement / License for Reuse
All Rights Reserved.
Publication Statement
Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
Rights Holder
Lujain Almuhanna
Provenance
Received from ProQuest
File Format
application/pdf
Language
English (eng)
Extent
55 pgs
File Size
5.2 MB
Recommended Citation
Almuhanna, Lujain, "Neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Brain Following Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury" (2024). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2417.
https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/2417