Funding Agency:

The Pittsburgh Foundation

Total Project Period:

10/01/07 - 09/30/08

Total Project Award:

$10,000

Principal Investigator:

Anthony E. Kline, PhD (Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation)

Co-Investigator:

Larry W. Jenkins, PhD

Project Summary:

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) affects 1.5 to 2 million individuals in the United States each year. A significant portion of the injured population is children.

While there are currently no accepted treatments for human TBI, data from our laboratory has shown that administration of serotonin 1A receptor (5-HT1AR) agonists -– a pharmacotherapy novel to TBI, but used routinely to treat anxiety and depression is humans –- attenuate experimental TBI-induced behavioral deficits in adult rodents. However, the potential efficacy of this therapeutic paradigm after pediatric TBI has not been evaluated.

Given that TBI is the leading cause of death and disability in children, empirical research elucidating potential treatments are warranted.

The goal of this project is to investigate the 5-HT1a receptor agonist buspirone on functional and histoogival outcome in pediatric rats sustaining TBI via cortical impact. It is hypothesized that the 5-HT1a receptor agonist buspirone will facilitate both motor and spatial learning/memory and attenuate histopathology after pediatric TBI