Paige Leary

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Beulig, Alfred

Area of Concentration

Neurobiology

Abstract

Incidence of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has steadily increased in populations of athletes and the aging, underscoring a need for further research in both disorders. Due to the similar symptomology and overlapping neuropathological consequence in both disorders, mTBI and AD appear to be ideal models to study side by side. This study details the implementation of a 15-month study investigating the neuropathological and lipidomic profiles of mouse models of mTBI and AD at three time points of age. The mTBI model involved five concussions spread out over nine days three months after birth, while the AD cohort involved a transgenic group of mice with the double mutation PSAPP on a null murine background. In three areas of the hippocampus of both mTBI and AD groups there was an increase in neuroinflammatory response, as well as an increase in four species of phospholipids. These observations thus far suggest that a side-by-side comparison of neurodegeneration may be a useful model for investigating further the overlapping and distinct profiles in mTBI and AD, as well as underscoring a need for further investigation in the etiology and progression of these disorders.

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