PLoS One

PurposeControlled cortical impact (CCI) models in adult and aged Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats have been used extensively to study medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) injury and the effects of post-injury progesterone treatment, but the hormone's effects after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in juvenile animals have not been determined. In the present proof-of-concept study we investigated whether progesterone had neuroprotective effects in a pediatric model of moderate to severe bilateral brain injury.MethodsTwenty-eight-day old (PND 28) male Sprague Dawley rats received sham (n\ue2\u20ac\u160=\ue2\u20ac\u16024) or CCI (n\ue2\u20ac\u160=\ue2\u20ac\u16047) injury and were given progesterone (4, 8, or 16 mg/kg per 100 g body weight) or vehicle injections on post-injury days (PID) 1\ue2\u20ac\u201c7, subjected to behavioral testing from PID 9\ue2\u20ac\u201c27, and analyzed for lesion size at PID 28.ResultsThe 8 and 16 mg/kg doses of progesterone were observed to be most beneficial in reducing the effect of CCI on lesion size and behavior in PND 28 male SD rats.ConclusionOur findings suggest that a midline CCI injury to the frontal cortex will reliably produce a moderate TBI comparable to what is seen in the adult male rat and that progesterone can ameliorate the injury-induced deficits.R49CE001494-04/CE/NCIPC CDC HHS/United States24489882PMC390499