Mechanisms of inflammatory response in secondary brain injury: a review of computational approaches, challenges, and future directions

Description

Fatemeh Jafarabadi, Meenal Datta, and Maria A Holland published a 2026 review of computational models of inflammation after traumatic brain injury. A blow to the head causes immediate mechanical damage, then a slower secondary injury driven by swelling and immune responses that can unfold for days. The review gathers the hallmarks of that inflammatory phase and surveys how researchers have simulated it.

Models range across scales and methods, each capturing part of a complicated timeline involving immune cells, fluid buildup, and tissue deformation. The authors weigh what current approaches do well and where they fall short for clinical translation. They close with directions for making simulations more realistic and useful, aiming at tools that could eventually help predict a patient's course and test treatments in silico.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13233661