High-Precision Pneumatic Induction of Traumatic Brain Injury in Larval Zebrafish

Zebrafish are an emerging vertebrate model for traumatic brain injury (TBI) research, but current larval injury paradigms, especially weight-drop methods, can be difficult to standardize. Here, we describe the Zebrafish Pneumatic Injury Device (ZePID), a compact pneumatic piston system that delivers controlled, reproducible pressure pulses to induce TBI in larval zebrafish. ZePID showed a strong linear relationship between input and delivered pressure and reduced variability relative to weight-drop approaches. In 6-days postfertilization larvae, a 150 psi injury increased maximum swimming speed and total distance traveled, consistent with seizure-like hyperactivity after TBI.