Fig. 9

Effect of premorbid TS-exposure and TBI on exploratory behavior and general motor activity. (A) Measurements of totaled distance traveled by mice do not show any significant difference between the tested groups at day 0 before TBI. However, mice undergoing chronic TS exposure w/o TBI demonstrated a significantly higher motor activity (B1). Note also that both TBI and TS-exposed mice undergoing TBI displayed a significant reduction in motor activity. Measurements performed at 24 and 72 h post-TBI clearly show that TS further aggravated TBI injury as denoted by the significant reduction of motor activity when compared to the TBI mice group (B2 and B3). (C) Longitudinal assessment of the animals’ response to injury w/wo TS exposure clearly shows that animals chronically exposed to TS experienced a significant delay in motor activity recovery when compared to TBI animals that were not exposed to TS. n = 6 biological replicates for each experimental group. *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 vs. control. ##p < 0.0, ####p < 0.0001 vs. smoke. @p < 0.05, @@p < 0.01 vs. TBI