# Inflammation, Neurovascular Hemodynamics, and Sleep in Traumatic Brain Injury

> **NIH VA I01** · VA BOSTON HEALTH CARE SYSTEM · 2024 · —

## Abstract

Veterans that experience traumatic brain injury often exhibit profound and debilitating sleep, impairments in their
brain wave activity, and dysregulated brain vascular functions. Disturbed sleep can impair mood, the ability to
work, cognition, relationships, and overall quality of life. Traumatic brain injury results in localized damage to the
brain inducing long-term increased inflammation and impairments in cerebral blood flow. Evidence indicates that
traumatic brain injury damage increases oxidative stress in the brain—a process known to induce inflammatory
molecules in brain cells, such as glia and neurons, that alters brain vascular functions. Interestingly, growing
evidence suggests that inflammation affects brain vascular functions and that vascular functions change during
sleep, although the exact mechanism responsible for these effects are not well understood. The goal of this
proposal is to determine how traumatic brain injury induces a major sleep regulatory inflammatory pathway
affected by oxidative stress in dysregulating sleep, brain wave activity, and brain vascular functions. We
hypothesize that traumatic brain injury drives oxidative stress to induce chronic brain inflammation impairing
brain vascular functions to impair sleep and brain wave activity. We use molecular and cellular techniques,
polysomnography, and vascular measurements in animal models for the aims of this project. Aim 1 determines
how components of a major sleep regulatory inflammatory pathway that is induced by oxidative stress is
activated in the brain by traumatic brain injury resulting in dysregulated sleep, brain wave activity and vascular
functions. Aim 2 examines how this major sleep regulatory inflammatory pathway is activated by traumatic brain
injury to induce both local and regional changes in brain vascular functioning and brain wave activity during
sleep. Data obtained from this project will provide critical information to understand the relationship between
inflammation and brain vascular functions on sleep and brain wave activity occurring from traumatic brain injury.
Thus, the findings from this project will provide information about novel targets involved in sleep dysregulation
which will lead to the future development of novel treatments for veterans with traumatic brain injury.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10874390
- **Project number:** 5I01BX005379-03
- **Recipient organization:** VA BOSTON HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Mark Robert Zielinski
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-04-01 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10874390

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10874390, Inflammation, Neurovascular Hemodynamics, and Sleep in Traumatic Brain Injury (5I01BX005379-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10874390. Licensed CC0.

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