Neuro-Metabolic and Vascular Dysregulation are Functional Biomarkers of Acquired Brain Injury

Abstract

Emerging clinical and neuropathological evidence suggests a direct link between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and neurodegenerative diseases (ND), but the mechanisms by which TBI contributes to ND onset and progression remain unclear. To bridge this gap, the NINDS TBI-ADRD consortium developed a diagnostic framework to guide the design and evaluation of TBI-ADRD experiments using translational neuroimaging (DCE-MRI, 18F-FDG-PET) and advanced image-processing pipelines. Neuro-metabolic and vascular dysregulation (MVD) and metabolic functional connectomics (MFC) were evaluated in 8-month C57BL/6J mice at 30- and 60-days post-injury (DPI). Both MVD and MFC revealed significant changes at 30- and 60-DPI that were sex- and injury side-dependent. Female mice showed greater regional MVD alterations, while MFC identified sex-dependent changes at 30-DPI that diminished by 60-DPI. These findings suggest that a single mid-life closed-head injury induces sexually dimorphic MVD and brain network remodeling, supporting the potential of MVD as a sensitive biomarker for improved clinical monitoring post-TBI.