Functional recovery following traumatic brain injury in rats is enhanced by oral supplementation with bovine thymus extract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. There are currently no effective treatments for TBI, and trauma survivors suffer from a variety of long‐lasting health consequences. With nutritional support recently emerging as a vital step in improving TBI patients'...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The FASEB journal 2024-02, Vol.38 (3), p.e23460-n/a
Main Authors: Surzenko, Natalia, Bastidas, Johana, Reid, Robert W., Curaba, Julien, Zhang, Wei, Bostan, Hamed, Wilson, Mickey, Dominique, Ashley, Roberson, Julia, Ignacio, Glicerio, Komarnytsky, Slavko, Sanders, Alexa, Lambirth, Kevin, Brouwer, Cory R., El‐Khodor, Bassem F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
autoantibodies
autophagy
Brain Injuries, Traumatic - drug therapy
Cattle
Disease Models, Animal
glandular therapy
Hippocampus
Humans
Neuroglia
Neurons
nutrition
oral tolerance
phagocytosis
Rats
RNA‐Seq
Thymus Extracts - pharmacology
Thymus Extracts - therapeutic use
Citations: Items that this one cites
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. There are currently no effective treatments for TBI, and trauma survivors suffer from a variety of long‐lasting health consequences. With nutritional support recently emerging as a vital step in improving TBI patients' outcomes, we sought to evaluate the potential therapeutic benefits of nutritional supplements derived from bovine thymus gland, which can deliver a variety of nutrients and bioactive molecules. In a rat model of controlled cortical impact (CCI), we determined that animals supplemented with a nuclear fraction of bovine thymus (TNF) display greatly improved performance on beam balance and spatial memory tests following CCI. Using RNA‐Seq, we identified an array of signaling pathways that are modulated by TNF supplementation in rat hippocampus, including those involved in the process of autophagy. We further show that bovine thymus‐derived extracts contain antigens found in neural tissues and that supplementation of rats with thymus extracts induces production of serum IgG antibodies against neuronal and glial antigens, which may explain the enhanced animal recovery following CCI through possible oral tolerance mechanism. Collectively, our data demonstrate, for the first time, the potency of a nutritional supplement containing nuclear fraction of bovine thymus in enhancing the functional recovery from TBI. Rats supplemented with bovine thymus extracts prior to controlled cortical impact (CCI) injury and during the recovery were evaluated in a variety of experimental assays. Supplementation with thymus nuclear fraction (TNF) extract (experimental conditions) enhances functional recovery from CCI, evidenced by behavioral improvements and molecular changes (red box). Induction of oral tolerance, demonstrated by the increase in the serum IgG antibodies against neuronal and glial antigens, is one proposed mechanism explaining the benefit of TNF supplementation for brain injury recovery.
ISSN:0892-6638
1530-6860
DOI:10.1096/fj.202301859R