Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2013592 | Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior | 2009 | 7 Pages |
Abstract
Dextromethorphan (DM) has been well-characterized as a neuroprotective agent in experimental models of CNS injury. The goal of this study was to determine the neuroprotective profile of DM in a military-relevant model of penetrating ballistic-like brain injury (PBBI). In an acute (3Â day) dose-response study, anesthetized male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to a unilateral frontal PBBI with DM (0.156-10Â mg/kg) or vehicle delivered as an i.v. bolus from 30Â min to 48Â h post-injury. In a follow-up (7Â day) experiment, the 10-mg/kg bolus injections of DM were administered in conjunction with a 6-h infusion (5Â mg/kg/h). DM bolus injections alone produced a dose-dependent improvement in motor recovery on a balance beam task at 3Â days post-injury. However, more rapid recovery (24Â h) was observed on this task when the bolus injections were combined with the 6-h infusion. Moreover, the DM bolus/infusion treatment regimen resulted in a significant (76%) improvement in cognitive performance in a novel object recognition (NOR) task at 7Â days post-injury. Although post-injury administration of DM (all doses) failed to reduce core lesion size, the maximum dose of DM (10Â mg/kg) was effective in reducing silver-stained axonal fiber degeneration in the cortical regions adjacent to the injury.
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Authors
Deborah A. Shear, Anthony J. Williams, Keith Sharrow, Xi-Chun M. Lu, Frank C. Tortella,