TBI from war worse than thought
Scientists trying to understand traumatic brain injury from bomb blasts are finding the wound more insidious than once thought. They find that even with no outward signs of injury, cells deep within the brain can be altered, their metabolism changed, causing them to die, said Geoff Ling, an advance-research scientist with the Pentagon. The new findings are the result of blast experiments in recent years on animals, followed by microscopic examination of brain tissue. The findings could mean that the number of brain-injured soldiers and Marines, many of whom appear unhurt after exposure to a blast, may be far greater than reported, said Ibolja Cernak, a scientist with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. In the animal studies, scientists said they have found a fundamentally different wound than the “brain concussion” historically associated with undetected brain injuries. The newly discovered brain damage at the cellular level can be permanent and lead to lasting neurological deterioration, Ling and Cernak said. The microscopic damage changes brain cell metabolism, Cernak said, creating a cascading effect that leads to the premature aging and death of neurons that cannot be replaced.
