A preliminary study on the effect of quantified cranial osteopathic manipulation on wild-type and transgenic rat models of Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease is a chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder that impairs the meningeal lymphatics, glymphatic system, and compartmental fluid exchange, leading to a decline in cognitive function. Due to the lack of non-pharmacological and physiological treatments, cranial osteopathic manipulation (COM) poses a potential minimally invasive therapeutic choice. To understand the treatment and related effects objectively, we have established a technique to quantify the force applied during COM on an animal model of AD for the first time. Our results indicate that quantified COM can be applied to rodents to study behavioral and biochemical phenotype changes.