Open AccessTranscranial Laser Therapy Does Not Improve Cognitive and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder–Related Behavioral Traits in Rats Exposed to Repetitive Low-Level Blast Injury
Author(s) -
Georgina Perez Garcia,
Gissel M. Perez,
Alena OteroPagan,
Rania Abutarboush,
Usmah Kawoos,
Rita De Gasperi,
Miguel A. Gama Sosa,
Dylan Pryor,
Patrick R. Hof,
David G. Cook,
Sam Gandy,
Stephen T. Ahlers,
Gregory A. Elder
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
neurotrauma reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2689-288X
DOI - 10.1089/neur.2021.0005
Subject(s) - blast injury , traumatic brain injury , anxiety , medicine , cognition , anesthesia , psychology , audiology , psychiatry , poison control , emergency medicine
Many military veterans who experienced blast-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from chronic cognitive and mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Transcranial laser therapy (TLT) uses low-power lasers emitting light in the far- to near-infrared ranges. Beneficial effects of TLT have been reported in neurological and mental-health-related disorders in humans and animal models, including TBI. Rats exposed to repetitive low-level blast develop chronic cognitive and PTSD-related behavioral traits. We tested whether TLT treatment could reverse these traits. Rats received a 74.5-kPa blast or sham exposures delivered one per day for 3 consecutive days. Beginning at 34 weeks after blast exposure, the following groups of rats were treated with active or sham TLT: 1) Sham-exposed rats ( n = 12) were treated with sham TLT; 2) blast-exposed rats ( n = 13) were treated with sham TLT; and 3) blast-exposed rats ( n = 14) were treated with active TLT. Rats received 5 min of TLT five times per week for 6 weeks (wavelength, 808 nm; power of irradiance, 240 mW). At the end of treatment, rats were tested in tasks found previously to be most informative (novel object recognition, novel object localization, contextual/cued fear conditioning, elevated zero maze, and light/dark emergence). TLT did not improve blast-related effects in any of these tests, and blast-exposed rats were worse after TLT in some anxiety-related measures. Based on these findings, TLT does not appear to be a promising treatment for the chronic cognitive and mental health problems that follow blast injury.