• Yuyo Maeda, Takafumi Mitsuhara, Masaaki Takeda, Ayano Kawate, Reo Kawano, Kiyoharu Shimizu, Masashi Kuwabara, Masahiro Hosogai, Louis Yuge, and Nobutaka Horie.
• 1Department of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima.
• J. Neurosurg. 2023 Sep 1; 139 (3): 840847840-847.

ObjectiveCerebral contusion models of cold-induced injury are widely used in animal studies. However, owing to the difficulty of longitudinal recording of electrical stimulation transcranial motor evoked potential (tcMEP) in brain injury models of incomplete paralysis, to the authors' knowledge there have been no multimodal evaluations of cold-induced brain injury models that have included motor function and electrophysiological and histological evaluations. Therefore, in this study the authors aimed to perform a multimodal evaluation of a rat model of brain injury.MethodsA brain injury model in female rats and a tcMEP recording technique based on the authors' previous study were established to enable multifaceted analysis, including longitudinal electrophysiological evaluation.ResultsThe model showed incomplete paralysis of the right forelimb. Motor function showed recovery over time, and histological evaluation showed tissue changes associated with cerebral contusion. In addition, stable tcMEP waveforms were recorded before and after surgery and up to 4 weeks after injury. The tcMEP amplitude decreased significantly after injury and recovered over time. Furthermore, the amplitudes at 1, 7, and 14 days after injury were significantly lower than those at preinjury (p < 0.0006, p < 0.0007, and p < 0.0067, respectively).ConclusionsIn the present study, the authors established a novel cold-induced brain injury rat model and technique that allowed for the evaluation of longitudinal tcMEP recording and demonstrated that multimodal evaluation for brain injury can be performed. This model can potentially be applied in future investigations of various therapies for brain injury.

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