evaluating-primary-blast-effects-in-vitro

Evaluating Primary Blast Effects <em>In Vitro</em>

Exposure to blast events can cause severe trauma to vital organs such as the lungs, ears, and brain. Understanding the mechanisms behind such ...

Imperial College London

Blast injuries from conventional and improvised explosive devices account for 75% of injuries from current conflicts; over 70% of injuries involve the limbs. Variable duration and magnitude of blast wave loading occurs in real-life explosions and is hypothesised to cause different injuries. While a number of in vivo models report the inflammatory response to blast injuries, the extent of this response has not been investigated with respect to the duration of the primary blast wave. The relevance is that explosions in open air are of short duration compared to those in confined spaces.

Prolonged but not short-duration blast waves elicit acute inflammation in a rodent model of primary blast limb trauma.

Understanding of the cellular immune response to primary blast lung injury (PBLI) is limited, with only the neutrophil response well documented. Moreover, its impact on the immune response in distal organs remains poorly understood. In this study, a rodent model of isolated primary blast injury was used to investigate the acute cellular immune response to isolated PBLI in the circulation and lung, including the monocyte response, and investigate distal subacute immune effects in the spleen and liver 6 hours after injury.

CD43Lo classical monocytes participate in the cellular immune response to isolated primary blast lung injury.

Lung injuries are common among those who suffer an impact or trauma. The relative severity of injuries up to physical tearing of tissue have been documented in clinical studies. However, the specific details of energy required to cause visible damage to the lung parenchyma are lacking. Furthermore, the limitations of lung tissue under simple mechanical loading are also not well documented. This study aimed to collect mechanical test data from freshly excised lung, obtained from both Sprague-Dawley rats and New Zealand White rabbits. Compression and tension tests were conducted at three different strain rates: 0.25, 2.5 and 25 min(-1). This study aimed to characterise the quasi-static behaviour of the bulk tissue prior to extending to higher rates. A nonlinear viscoelastic analytical model was applied to the data to describe their behaviour. Results exhibited asymmetry in terms of differences between tension and compression. The rabbit tissue also appeared to exhibit stronger viscous behaviour than the rat tissue. As a narrow strain rate band is explored here, no conclusions are being drawn currently regarding the rate sensitivity of rat tissue. However, this study does highlight both the clear differences between the two tissue types and the important role that composition and microstructure can play in mechanical response.

Article	Year
Prolonged but not short-duration blast waves elicit acute inflammation in a rodent model of primary blast limb trauma. Injury\| PubMed ID: 26838938	2016
CD43Lo classical monocytes participate in the cellular immune response to isolated primary blast lung injury. The journal of trauma and acute care surgery\| PubMed ID: 27306447	2016
On the behaviour of lung tissue under tension and compression. Scientific reports\| PubMed ID: 27819358	2016

Hari Arora

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