The Effects of Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury in Adult Female Rats

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and stress are major risk factors for long-term neurobehavioral dysfunction, yet their interactive effect in females remains poorly understood. The present study examined the combined effects of prior stress and TBI on behavioral and cognitive outcomes in adult female Sprague–Dawley rats. Animals were quais-randomly assigned to one of two groups representing the extremes of a 2×2 factorial design: immobilization stress followed by TBI (IMM+TBI) or control with sham injury (CON+SHAM). Time-to-right (TTR) was recorded immediately post-injury, and motor coordination was assessed using a beam task at 1-day post-injury as forms of validation for the TBI model. A battery of behavioral and cognitive assays was assessed after adequate recovery (1-week post-injury). Among all measures, only TTR showed a significant difference, with longer righting latencies observed in the IMM+TBI group compared to CON+SHAM. No significant group differences were found across anxiety-like, locomotor, startle, or spatial learning measures. These findings suggest that, in female rats, the combination of immobilization stress and TBI may not produce robust behavioral alterations within the examined timeframe. The lack of significant findings highlights the need for further research to validate the TBI model and clarify sex-specific mechanisms underlying stress–TBI interactions.

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