Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation attenuates neuroinflammation in a mouse model of traumatic brain injury
Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) activated the solitary tract nucleus and the dorsal motor nucleus of the vagus nerve as evidenced by a significant upregulation of the neuronal activation marker c-Fos, indicating vagus nerve activation. Transcutaneous auricular VNS treatment reduced the expression of pro-inflammatory microglial markers Tnf (1.69 ± 0.17 vs. 3.615 ± 0.86, p < 0.05) and Lcn2 (64.15 ± 14 vs. 337.7 ± 104.8, p < 0.01) in the ipsilateral injured cortex on PIDs 3 and 7, respectively. Transcutaneous auricular VNS also increased the expression of anti-inflammatory microglial marker Arg1 (55 ± 6.47 vs. 30.49 ± 3.94, p < 0.01) and astrocyte Gfap reactivity (8,582 ± 826 vs. 4,569 ± 554.3, p < 0.01) on PID 3.
Authors
- William B. Fulton (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5289-1621)
- Mahmoud G. El Baassiri
- Daniel Scheese
- Johannes W. Duess
- Chhinder P. Sodhi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1366-4813)
- Isam W. Nasr (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1848-5259)
- David Joel Hackam (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5195-8807)
- Gene Y. Fridman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2208-8993)
- Cody Tragesser (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4363-3804)
- Leonard Lawandos
Institutions
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of Trauma: Injury, Infection, and Critical Care
- Published
- 2025-12-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1097/ta.0000000000004849
- Primary Topic
- Vagus Nerve Stimulation Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00