Reduction of epinephrine in the lumbar spinal cord following repetitive blast-induced traumatic brain injury in rats

This study investigates the impact of repeated blast-induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI) on epinephrine levels in the central nervous system (CNS) regions of rats. The purpose of the present study was to determine the impact of repeated blast-induced traumatic brain injury on the epinephrine levels in several function-specific central nervous system regions in rats. Rats were subjected to three blast injuries at 3-day intervals, and epinephrine levels were measured in various brain regions and the lumbar spinal cord. Following three repeated blast injuries at 3-day intervals, the hippocampus, motor cortex, locus coeruleus, vestibular nuclei, and lumbar spinal cord were harvested at post-injury day eight and processed for epinephrine assays using a high-sensitive electrochemical detector coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography. The study found a significant decrease in epinephrine levels in the lumbar spinal cord of rats with bTBI compared to controls, suggesting that bTBI-induced downregulation of epinephrine could negatively impact motor and cardiovascular function. These results suggest that blast injury-induced significant downregulation of epinephrine in the lumbar spinal cord could negatively impact the motor and cardiovascular function.

• 1
  Epinephrine levels were significantly decreased in the lumbar spinal cord tissues of bTBI animals compared to sham controls. Our results showed that the epinephrine levels were significantly decreased in the lumbar spinal cord tissues of blast-induced traumatic brain injury animals compared to the levels detected in age- and sex-matched sham controls.
• 2
  Epinephrine levels were slightly altered in other function-specific CNS regions following bTBI, but these changes were not statistically significant. In other function-specific central nervous system regions, although the epinephrine levels were slightly altered following blast-induced traumatic brain injury, they were not statistically significant.
• 3
  Repetitive bTBI-induced significant reduction of Epi in the LSC could dysregulate the activities of multiple types of neurons in the CNS. Taken together, repetitive bTBI-induced significant reduction of Epi in the LSC could dysregulate the activities of multiple types of neurons in the CNS.