A research conducted by L. Wei’s group showed that peripheral stimulation and physiotherapy could promote neurovascular plasticity and functional repair after central nervous system disorders, such as ischemic stroke. Ischemia is a local anaemia often caused by the vascular factor (arterial luminal narrowing or obturation) and leading to temporary dysfunction or stable injury of the tissue or organ. Organs of the central nervous system and myocard are the most ischemia-sensitive organs. Researchers from the group headed by L. Wei provoked ischemic stroke in the right cortical sensorimotor area of the adult mice’s brain cortex, or they simulated that injury. Three days after that manipulation all mice obtained BrdU (5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine) injection and every second mouse got whisker stimulation to enhance afferent signals to the cortex of the injured area. In 14 days after stroke, whisker stimulation considerably increased the level of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1); also, local cerebral blood circulation improved in those animals. Neurogenesis, detected by the level of the nuclear protein (NeuN) and by BrdU staining, improved as well. Thus, it was found that after peripheral stimulation, neurogenesis and cell migration improved in mice undergone focal ischemia.
Place of employment — Medical University of South Carolina, USA.
Contacts — Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA (843) 792–4112 weil@musc.edu .
Publications — Transplantation of embryonic stem cells overexpressing Bcl-2 promotes functional recovery after transient cerebral ischemia. Wei L, Cui L, Snider BJ, Rivkin M, Yu SS, Lee CS, Adams LD, Gottlieb DI, Johnson EM Jr, Yu SP, Choi DW. Neurobiol Dis. 2005 Jun-Jul;19(1–2):183–93.Necrosis, apoptosis and hybrid death in the cortex and thalamus after barrel cortex ischemia in rats. Wei L, Ying DJ, Cui L, Langsdorf J, Yu SP. Brain Res. 2004 Oct 1;1022(1–2):54–61.
