Impact of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) on sperm genome integrity: insights from a mouse model.

Purpose: Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) poses a significant global health burden, with Mild TBI (mTBI) being the most prevalent form. TBI triggers activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which in turn affects the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis regulating oogenesis and spermatogenesis. In this study, we investigated the impact of mTBI on sperm genome integrity using a repetitive mTBI (r-mTBI) mouse model.

Heterozygous Cc2d1a mice show sex-dependent changes in the Beclin-1/p62 ratio with impaired prefrontal cortex and hippocampal autophagy.

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by repetitive behaviors, lack of social interaction and communication. CC2D1A is identified in patients as an autism risk gene. Recently, we suggested that heterozygous Cc2d1a mice exhibit impaired autophagy in the hippocampus.