Establishment of a rat model of craniocerebral blast injury induced by cabin explosion / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To establish a rat model of craniocerebral blast injury caused by the shock wave of cabin explosion.Methods Fifty male adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into 5 groups (10 each)3g,5g,8g TNT with vest groups,5g TNT without vest group and control group.Uncased explosives of different equivalent were suspended in the cabin center.After anesthesia,with exception of control group,the rats were placed in prone position about 31 cm below the explosive,facing the explosive with or without vest.After the explosion,the survived rats were observed,serological and pathological examinations were performed at 3h,1d and 3d after the explosion.Results In terms of tissue damage and mortality,compared with the control group,no obvious injury formed in rats of the 3g TNT with vest group,and all of them survived;Rats in 5g TNT with vest group showed mild lung injury,brain tissue edema,enlarged blood vessel,patchy hemorrhage on the brain surface,and with a mortality of 30％;Rats in 8g TNT with vest group showed serious organ damage with a mortality of 80％;Rats in 5g TNT without vest group suffered from severe lung injury,almost all died right after the explosion.Therefore,rats in 5g TNT with vest group were more in line with the experimental needs.Further serum and pathologic examinations showed that the brain water content increased,the serum neuron specific enolase (NSE) and S-100β protein also increased markedly,and necrotic or apoptotic changes happened in the cortex and hippocampus neurons.Conclusion A stable animal model of craniocerebral blast injury may be established with rats in the case of chest and abdomen protected and then exposed to 5g TNT explosion in cabin.