Abstract
Intermittent theta burst (iTBS) powered by direct current stimulation (DCS) can safely be applied transcranially to induce neuroplasticity in the human and animal brain cortex. tDCS-iTBS is a special waveform that is used by very few studies, and its safety needs to be confirmed. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the safety of tDCS-iTBS in an animal model after brain stimulations for 1 h and 4 weeks. Thirty-one Sprague Dawley rats were divided into two groups: (1) short-term stimulation for 1 h/session (sham, low, and high) and (2) long-term for 30 min, 3 sessions/week for 4 weeks (sham and high). The anodal stimulation applied over the primary motor cortex ranged from 2.5 to 4.5 mA/cm2. The brain biomarkers and scalp tissues were assessed using ELISA and histological analysis (H&E staining) after stimulations. The caspase-3 activity, cortical myelin basic protein (MBP) expression, and cortical interleukin (IL-6) levels increased slightly in both groups compared to sham. The serum MBP, cortical neuron-specific enolase (NSE), and serum IL-6 slightly changed from sham after stimulations. There was no obvious edema or cell necrosis seen in cortical histology after the intervention. The short- and long-term stimulations did not induce significant adverse effects on brain and scalp tissues upon assessing biomarkers and conducting histological analysis.
Funder
Ministry of Science and Technology Taiwan
Subject
Inorganic Chemistry,Organic Chemistry,Physical and Theoretical Chemistry,Computer Science Applications,Spectroscopy,Molecular Biology,General Medicine,Catalysis
Cited by
3 articles.
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