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. 2018 Jul 12;8(1):10549.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-28910-z.

Hypothermia ameliorates blast-related lifespan reduction of C. elegans

Nicholas B Angstman  1 , Hans-Georg Frank, Christoph Schmitz  2
Affiliations

Hypothermia ameliorates blast-related lifespan reduction of C. elegans

Nicholas B Angstman et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Blast-related mild traumatic brain injury induces significant long-term health issues, yet treatment procedures remain underdeveloped. Therapeutic hypothermia has been postulated as a potentially effective therapy. In a Caenorhabditis elegans model, we demonstrate a dose-dependent reduction in lifespan following exposure to blast-like shock waves. Using polyvinyl alcohol, we show that cavitation is a key injurious factor in the damaging shock wave component. Short and long lifespan C. elegans mutants demonstrated the interaction of genetic and environmental longevity-determining factors. Hypothermia reduced the long term effect of shock wave exposure. Thus, we present an effective C. elegans model of long term effects of blast-related mild traumatic brain injury, as well as evidence of the merit of therapeutic hypothermia as a therapy option following blast exposure.

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Conflict of interest statement

Nicholas B. Angstman and Hans-Georg Frank declare that no competing interests exist. Christoph Schmitz served (until December 2017) as a paid consultant for and received benefits from Electro Medical Systems (Nyon, Switzerland), the distributor of the Swiss DolorClast extracorporeal shock wave device. However, Electro Medical Systems had no any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript. No other potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Shock wave exposure decreases lifespan. (a) Lifespans of N2 C. elegans raised in liquid cultures following shock wave exposure. (b) Lifespans of N2 worms raised on NGM agar plates following shock wave exposure. (c) Lifespans of N2 worms exposed to shock waves in S-medium or polyvinyl alcohol. (d) Lifespans of N2 worms exposed to shock waves in S-medium or polyvinyl alcohol, followed by a short washing step. (e) Lifespans of daf-16(m26) worms following shock wave exposure. (f) Lifespans of N2 worms at 11 °C following shock wave exposure. (g) Lifespans of daf-2(e1370) worms at 11 °C following exposure to shock waves. In all panels, vertical dotted lines represent 50% lifespan of control. Arrows and horizontal dotted lines represent the percent survival of each test group at time of the corresponding 50% control survival. N > 500 worms in all experiment groups (the exact numbers are provided in the Methods section).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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