ABSTRACT
Traumatic and ischemic Central Nerve System (CNS) injury is a signifi cant biomedical problem without adequate therapeutic interventions. It includes Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke (or intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH)), subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is defi ned as a neurotrauma caused by a mechanical force that is applied to the head. Annually in the United States, there are approximately 1.4 to 2.0 million incidents that involve TBI. Of these, nearly 100,000 patients die, another 500,000 are hospitalized, and thousands of others suffer short and long term effect (Ottens et al., 2007; CDC, 2010). TBI is referred to as a silent epidemic (Siman et al., 2004; Hoffman and Harrison, 2009; Siman et al., 1984; Pike et al., 2004, 2001; Mondello et al., 2010). The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that approximately 5.3 million Americans live with the effects of TBI. About half of the estimated 1.9 million Americans who experience TBI’s each year incur at least some short-term disability. Fifty two thousand people die as a result of their injuries and more than
1 Center for Neuroproteomics & Biomarkers Research, Department of Psychiatry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA.
