New research coming out of Brown University is taking a close look at what actually happens to the human brain following an impacting blow that leads to a concussion. The research team at Brown has been able to set up an experiment by which they can actually see what happens to the neurons in the brain at the point of impact as well as the cell damage that can occur over time.
The researchers created a special environment using a specifically created device that compresses neurons within 3D created cells all the while observing what happens under the lenses of an extremely advanced microscope. One of the major findings, and perhaps the most important, is that it will take at least six hours for cell damage to begin to occur after a brain has been exposed to a traumatic brain injury like a concussion.
The damage caused to the brain’s neurons after at least six hours cannot be reversed according to the scientists at Brown. What the researchers are hopeful of, however, is that there seems to have arisen a brief window where doctors may be able to prevent the cell damage or lessen it to a certain extent before the damage becomes irreparable.
Christian Franck, the lead researcher on the project said that, “This is the first study that applied this kind of strain to brain cells and followed them over time. We’re excited because we can finally get some concrete information about when cells start to degenerate, when they die and what the process looks like.”
The research team recognized a particular process that led to cell death but their new experiments led them to discover yet another process that caused the death of the cells that no one had previously known about. The reason that this research has been so significant is because Franck’s team approached the challenge from three dimensions. Normally, such studies regarding the brain have been in two dimensions only. The two dimensional approach can not measure compression but the three dimensional approach can do it and can do it in real time.
“Our system”, Franck said, “doesn’t have near the complexity of a real brain so we’re not saying that it plays out exactly this way with traumatic brain injury patients but we wanted to start simply and get fundamental data on how neurons respond to these strains. We think it provides a good starting point for further research.”
PHOTO CREDIT: USA Today