Effects of transcranial direct current stimulation on consciousness and expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in coma rats following traumatic brain injury / 中国康复医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate wake-promoting effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on brain injury-induced coma and the possible mechanism.Method:Fifty-four adult SD rats were randomly divided into three groups with 18 rats in each group.They were blank group,traumatic brain injury-induced coma (TBI) group and tDCS group.Using classical free fall method to create brain injury-induced coma and then treated rats with tDCS,consciousness level of rats were assessed at 6h,12h,24h time points.After consciousness level evaluation,rats were put to death and then the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus of rats were extracted.Western Blot method was used to determine the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in three groups.Result:Eighteen rats in control group,6 rats in TBI group and 11 rats in tDCS group awakened.BDNF expression in TBI group was higher than that in blank group in PFC and hippocampus.More over,at 12h in PFC and at 6h in hippocampus,BDNF expression in tDCS group was higher than that in TBI group with statistically significant difference(P ＜ 0.05).Conclusion:tDCS can improve the consciousness level of coma rats following TBI and the mechanism may be related to upregulation of BDNF expression in the PFC and hippocampus of rats.