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
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



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