Animal Models of Neuroinflammation

TOPICAL COLLECTIONS

Guest Editors

Erika Calvo-Ochoa

Hope College

Dr. Erika Calvo-Ochoa is an Assistant Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at Hope College. Her lab investigates mechanisms of plasticity, repair, and regeneration in the zebrafish brain following injury and disease. One of her current projects explores the role of neuroinflammation in CNS repair and functional recovery following excitotoxicity and acute brain trauma. Dr. Calvo-Ochoa received both her B.Sc. in Biomedical Research and PhD in Neuroscience at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico where she studied the effects of high-fat-and-sugar diets on plasticity and neuroinflammatory markers in the hippocampus. Dr. Calvo-Ochoa held a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellowship and an IBRO-RIKEN CBS fellowship to pursue her postdoctoral research at Western Michigan University and RIKEN Center for Brain Science where she characterized neurodegeneration and regeneration mechanisms in the olfactory system of zebrafish following lesions of the olfactory bulb. Dr. Calvo-Ochoa focuses her work on zebrafish to get a better understanding of repair mechanisms that can potentially inform strategies for repairing brain lesions in humans.

Susanna R. Var

University of Minnesota

Dr. Susanna R. Var is a postdoctoral fellow in the PharmacoNeuroImmunology program at the University of Minnesota. Her main field of study is neuroimmunology. Currently, she is examining the role of neuroinflammation in TBI and stroke using cell-based approaches to modulate the inflammatory response in rodent and canine models. Dr. Var received her B.S. in Biology at the University of California, San Diego where she studied mitochondrial dysfunction in the central nervous system (CNS) and HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders. She earned her PhD in Biology at Western Michigan University. In her graduate research with Dr. Christine Byrd-Jacobs, she focused on characterizing microglial involvement in neural plasticity, regeneration, and functional recovery after injury to the CNS using the zebrafish model. She hopes that her research will someday lead to the development of novel methods for treating toxic and chronic neuroinflammatory processes that are found in many brain diseases and injuries.

Collection Overview

Neuroinflammation widely describes the inflammatory response within the central nervous system, initiated by injury, infection, or stress, including traumatic brain injury, neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and viral infections with neurological consequences, like COVID-19. The majority of research focuses on the pathological aspects of neuroinflammation; however, there is both an inflammatory and intrinsic repair process that may lead to beneficial and functional recovery. Animal models have been developed to understand the consequences of these neuroinflammatory processes in both a time- and context-specific manner. Investigation of inflammatory mediators helps to delineate the roles of particular immune cells, such as macrophages, microglia, and astrocytes, as well as associated signaling pathways that may serve as potential candidates for therapeutic interventions. The objective of this Methods Collections is to present a variety of animal models and techniques that currently are being used to investigate neuroinflammation after injury and in disease. From a technical, financial, and ethical standpoint, different animal models suit a variety of research needs prior to translation. The purpose of this collection is to provide collective insight on these current techniques that are being used in different animal models to study neuroinflammation.