Brain research
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The impact of hyperglycemia after traumatic brain injury (TBI), and even the administration of glucose-containing solutions to head injured patients, remains controversial. In the current study adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were tested on behavioral tasks and then underwent surgery to induce sham injury or unilateral controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury followed by injections (i.p.) with either a 50% glucose solution (Glc; 2g/kg) or an equivalent volume of either 0.9% or 8% saline (Sal) at 0, 1, 3 and 6h post-injury. The type of saline treatment did not significantly affect any outcome measures, so these data were combined. ⋯ At 15 days post-surgery the loss of cortical tissue volume (p < 0.001 versus sham) was significantly less in the CCI-Glc group (30.0%; p < 0.05) compared to the CCI-Sal group (35.7%). Counts of surviving hippocampal hilar neurons revealed a significant (~40%) loss ipsilateral to CCI (p < 0.001 versus sham), but neuronal loss in the hippocampus was not different in the CCI-Sal and CCI-Glc groups. Taken together, these results indicate that an early elevation of blood glucose may improve some neurological outcomes and, importantly, the induction of hyperglycemia after isolated TBI did not adversely affect any sensorimotor, cognitive or histological outcomes.