[Recent advances in emerging three-dimensional in vitro models for sport-related traumatic brain injury]

Sports-related traumatic brain injury (srTBI) is a traumatic brain injury (TBI) caused by sports, which can result in cognitive and motor dysfunction. Currently, research on the molecular mechanism of srTBI and related drug development mainly relies on monolayer culture models and animal models. However, many differences exist in cell populations and inflammatory responses between these models and human pathophysiological processes. Most of the researches derived from the models can't effectively conducted translational research. Emerging three-dimensional (3D) in vitro models bridge the limitations of traditional models in simulating the pathophysiological processes of human srTBI and provide new means to understand srTBI. A literature has reported the research progress of emerging 3D in vitro models in neurological diseases, but there is a lack of systematic summary of the mentioned models in srTBI studies. Here, we review the research progress of emerging 3D in vitro models of srTBI, discuss the advantages and limitations of existing models, and further prospect the future trend of srTBI models. This paper aims to provide a new research perspective for researchers in tissue engineering and sports medicine to study the molecular mechanisms of srTBI and develop neuroprotective drugs.