Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the most disabling clinical conditions that could lead to neurocognitive disorders in survivors. Our group and others previously reported that prophylactic enrichment of dietary omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) markedly ameliorates cognitive deficits after TBI. However, it remains unclear whether a clinically relevant therapeutic regimen with n-3 PUFAs administered after TBI would still offer significant improvement of long-term cognitive recovery. In the present study, we employed the decline of spatial cognitive function as a main outcome after TBI to investigate the therapeutic efficacy of post-TBI n-3 PUFA treatment and the underlying mechanisms. Mice were subjected to sham operation or controlled cortical impact, followed by random assignment to receive the following four treatments: 1) vehicle control; 2) daily intraperitoneal injections of n-3 PUFAs for 2 weeks, beginning 2 hours after TBI; 3) fish oil dietary supplementation throughout the study, beginning 1 day after TBI; or 4) combined treatment of 2) and 3). Spatial cognitive deficits and chronic brain tissue loss, as well as endogenous brain repair processes such as neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and oligodendrogenesis, were evaluated up to 35 days after TBI. The results revealed prominent spatial cognitive deficits and massive tissue loss caused by TBI. Among all mice receiving post-TBI n-3 PUFA treatments, the combined treatment of fish oil dietary supplement and n-3 PUFA injections demonstrated reproducible beneficial effect in attenuating cognitive deficits although without reducing gross tissue loss. Mechanistically, the combined treatment promoted post-TBI restorative processes in the brain, including generation of immature neurons, microvessels, and oligodendrocytes; each of which was significantly correlated with the improved cognitive recovery. These results indicated that repetitive and prolonged n-3 PUFA treatments after TBI are capable of enhancing brain remodeling, and could be developed as a potential therapy to treat TBI victims in clinic.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 64. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 30 September 2026.
All research outputs
#830,383
of 34,139,790 outputs
Outputs from Cell Transplantation
#25
of 2,402 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#12,849
of 353,521 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cell Transplantation
#1
of 23 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,139,790 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 97th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 2,402 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.7. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 353,521 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 96% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 23 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 95% of its contemporaries.
