The Blood Brain Barrier Injury in CTE

Protecting our brain is a layer that keeps out toxins from the body. A recent study of athletes found that this blood brain barrier was leaky and allowing harmful materials into the brain.  

It explains why athletes who have had repeated head injuries develop symptoms of traumatic encephalopathy syndrome. It’s a long-term cognitive decline that develops into chronic traumatic encephalopathy. By then, there’s memory loss, poor decision making, balance problems, tremors and other motor neuron symptoms.   

In the study, researchers set out to test whether changes in the blood brain barrier could be used to detect this form of brain injury in a group of retired athletes who played in contact sports such as rugby, football, and boxing. They were injected with dye and given an MRI scan along with athletes in non-contact sports. Athletes whose brain barrier was not leaky would be able to stop the dye from entering the brain. Researchers saw that athletes in contact sports had compromised barriers even years after they had retired.  

They saw the same kind of damage in the MRI scans of dead athletes with the disease. The study shows a strong link between contact sports and higher risk for blood brain barrier diseases. When toxins and inflammatory proteins enter the brain, a cascade of events can damage and kill brain cells. 

This means the MRI could be an early predictor of whether an athlete will develop brain diseases in the future. This way, early treatment could maybe slow or prevent the disease from advancing.