Delivery of a Traumatic Brain Injury to a Mouse Brain

Begin with an anesthetized mouse with its head secured in a stereotaxic apparatus.

Apply ointment to prevent eye dryness.

Remove the hair from the head and disinfect the area.

Make a midline incision on the scalp and remove the connective tissue to expose the skull.

Clean the area with saline and allow the skull to dry.

Using the point where the skull bones join and the bone boundary as a reference, mark the desired area for the traumatic brain injury or TBI.

Position the mouse under the TBI device.

The TBI device consists of an impactor and a metal column within a tunnel.

Align the impactor tip with the marked area on the skull.

Lift the metal column to a desired height and release it freely to deliver an impact on the skull, inducing a TBI at the specified location.

To begin, apply ophthalmic ointment to the anesthetized mouse's eyes. Remove the hair from the top of the head by trimming with regular scissors. After establishing a 12-to-15-millimeter-long midline incision, excise the skin over the left and right hemispheres of the skull using curved-tipped spring scissors.

Once this hole is exposed, remove the periosteum by gently rubbing it with a sterile cotton-tipped applicator, and flushing it with sterile saline. Once the school area is dried, mark the Traumatic Brain Injury, or TBI impact site at the coordinates 2.5-millimeter posterior to the bregma, and two millimeters lateral from the sagittal suture to the right.

Quickly remove the mouse from the stereotactic frame, and place the head on the buffer cushion under the TBI device. Align the impactor tip with the marked impact site. Lift the metal column by pulling the tethered nylon string 15 centimeters above the mouse head, and then, release it allowing the weight to fall freely onto the transducer rod, which is in contact with the skull top at the TBI site.