Nano-pulsed laser therapy of abnormal hippocampal neurogenesis after traumatic brain injury

Recently we proposed to use optoacoustic therapy/Nano-Pulse Laser Therapy-NPLT and tested it in rats with traumatic brain injury (TBI). In this study we used an optoacoustic system operating at 808 nm and demonstrated that NPLT prevented TBI-induced upregulation of specific microRNAs (miRNAs) in NSC and significantly decreased TBI-induced impaired maturation and abnormal migration of neural progenitors. Moreover, NPLT-treated injured rats performed significantly better in hippocampus-dependent cognitive tests than did sham rats. Our results strongly suggest that NPLT has the potential to be an effective tool for the treatment of TBI-induced cognitive dysfunction and dysregulation of neurogenesis.