Articles

Hypoxia after stroke: a review of experimental and clinical evidence

Hypoxia is a common occurrence following stroke and associated with poor clinical and functional outcomes. Normal oxygen physiology is a finely controlled mechanism from the oxygenation of haemoglobin in the p...

Authors: Phillip Ferdinand and Christine Roffe

Therapeutic potential of the renin angiotensin system in ischaemic stroke

The renin angiotensin system (RAS) consists of the systemic hormone system, critically involved in regulation and homeostasis of normal physiological functions [i.e. blood pressure (BP), blood volume regulatio...

Authors: Mariana Moreira Coutinho Arroja, Emma Reid and Christopher McCabe

Pathophysiology and management of reperfusion injury and hyperperfusion syndrome after carotid endarterectomy and carotid artery stenting

Cerebral hyperperfusion is a relatively rare syndrome with significant and potentially preventable clinical consequences. The pathophysiology of cerebral hyperperfusion syndrome (CHS) may involve dysregulation...

Authors: Muhammad U. Farooq, Christopher Goshgarian, Jiangyong Min and Philip B. Gorelick

A pilot study evaluating the use of ABCD2 score in pre-hospital assessment of patients with suspected transient ischaemic attack: experience and lessons learned

Suspected transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is a common presentation to emergency medical services (EMS) in the United Kingdom (UK). Several EMS systems have adopted the ABCD2 score to aid pre-hospital risk str...

Authors: Scott Munro, Sally Rodbard, Khalid Ali, Claire Horsfield, Wendy Knibb, Janet Holah, Ottilia Speirs and Tom Quinn

Erratum to: Artery reopening is required for the neurorestorative effects of angiotensin modulation after experimental stroke

Authors: Ahmed Alhusban, Anna Kozak, Wael Eldahshan, Adviye Ergul and Susan C. Fagan

Artery reopening is required for the neurorestorative effects of angiotensin modulation after experimental stroke

Blood flow restoration with fibrinolysis and thrombectomy is recommended to limit injury in stroke patients with proximal artery occlusion. Angiotensin receptor blockers have been shown to be neuroprotective i...

Authors: Ahmed Alhusban, Anna Kozak, Wael Eldahshan, Adviye Ergul and Susan C. Fagan

Report on the 7th scientific meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Young Academics in Neurology (NEUROWIND e.V.) held in Motzen, Germany, October 30–November 1, 2015

From October 30–November 1, 2015, the 7th NEUROWIND e.V. meeting was held in Motzen, Brandenburg, Germany. Seventy doctoral students and postdocs from over 25 different groups working in German and Swiss Unive...

Authors: Thomas Korn, Christoph Kleinschnitz, Tim Magnus, Sven G. Meuth and Ralf A. Linker

Cerebral collateral circulation in experimental ischemic stroke

Cerebral collateral circulation is a subsidiary vascular network, which is dynamically recruited after arterial occlusion, and represents a powerful determinant of ischemic stroke outcome. Although several met...

Authors: Elisa Cuccione, Giada Padovano, Alessandro Versace, Carlo Ferrarese and Simone Beretta

Treatment with FTY720 has no beneficial effects on short-term outcome in an experimental model of intracerebral hemorrhage

No evidence-based therapy is available for patients with acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). In view of the profound inflammatory reaction in the perilesional tissue, we investigated in a well-characterized ...

Authors: Frieder Schlunk, Waltraud Pfeilschifter, Kazim Yigitkanli, Eng H. Lo and Christian Foerch

Docosahexaenoic acid improves behavior and attenuates blood–brain barrier injury induced by focal cerebral ischemia in rats

Ischemic brain injury disrupts the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and then triggers a cascade of events, leading to edema formation, secondary brain injury and poor neurological outcomes. Recently, we have shown th...

Authors: Sung-Ha Hong, Larissa Khoutorova, Nicolas G Bazan and Ludmila Belayev

Platelet rich clots are resistant to lysis by thrombolytic therapy in a rat model of embolic stroke

Early recanalization of occluded vessels in stroke is closely associated with improved clinical outcome. Microbubble-enhanced sonothrombolysis is a promising therapy to improve recanalization rates and reduce ...

Authors: Amelia J Tomkins, Nadine Schleicher, Lucy Murtha, Manfred Kaps, Christopher R Levi, Max Nedelmann and Neil J Spratt

Report on the 6th scientific meeting of the “Verein zur Förderung des Wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses in der Neurologie” (NEUROWIND e.V.) held in Motzen, Germany, Oct. 31th – Nov. 2nd, 2014

From October 31th – November 2nd, 2014, the 6th NEUROWIND e.V. meeting was held in Motzen, Brandenburg, Germany. 70 doctoral students and postdocs from over 25 different groups working in German and Swiss univ...

Authors: Christoph Kleinschnitz, Ralf A Linker, Tim Magnus, Thomas Korn and Sven G Meuth

Flow cytometric characterization of brain dendritic cell subsets after murine stroke

Sterile inflammation is a substantial element of post-stroke pathophysiology with the determination of autoimmunity versus tolerance being one of its most important aspects. It is believed that this determinat...

Authors: Claudia Pösel, Anna Uri, Isabell Schulz, Johannes Boltze, Gesa Weise and Daniel-Christoph Wagner

A 2 × 2 factorial design for the combination therapy of minocycline and remote ischemic perconditioning: efficacy in a preclinical trial in murine thromboembolic stroke model

After the failure of so many drugs and therapies for acute ischemic stroke, innovative approaches are needed to develop new treatments. One promising strategy is to test combinations of agents in the pre-hospi...

Authors: Md Nasrul Hoda, Susan C Fagan, Mohammad B Khan, Kumar Vaibhav, Aizaz Chaudhary, Phillip Wang, Krishnan M Dhandapani, Jennifer L Waller and David C Hess

The influence of functional electrical stimulation on hand motor recovery in stroke patients: a review

Neuromuscular stimulation has been used as one potential rehabilitative treatment option to restore motor function and improve recovery in patients with paresis. Especially stroke patients who often regain onl...

Authors: Fanny Quandt and Friedhelm C Hummel

Rapamycin up-regulation of autophagy reduces infarct size and improves outcomes in both permanent MCAL, and embolic MCAO, murine models of stroke

The role of autophagy in response to ischemic stroke has been confusing with reports that both enhancement and inhibition of autophagy decrease infarct size and improve post-stroke outcomes. We sought to clari...

Authors: Kathleen M Buckley, Daniel L Hess, Irina Y Sazonova, Sudharsan Periyasamy-Thandavan, John R Barrett, Russell Kirks, Harrison Grace, Galina Kondrikova, Maribeth H Johnson, David C Hess, Patricia V Schoenlein, Md Nasrul Hoda and William D Hill

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) provides protection against endothelial cell dysfunction and death in ischemic stroke

The brain endothelium is a key component of the blood brain barrier which is compromised following ischemia, allowing infiltration of damaging immune cells and other inflammatory molecules into the brain. Intr...

Authors: Alexander Widiapradja, Tomislav Santro, Milan Basta, Christopher G Sobey, Silvia Manzanero and Thiruma V Arumugam

A microsurgical procedure for middle cerebral artery occlusion by intraluminal monofilament insertion technique in the rat: a special emphasis on the methodology

Although there are many experimental studies describing the methodology of the middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in the literature, only limited data on these distinct anatomical structures and the detai...

Authors: Aslan Güzel, Roland Rölz, Guido Nikkhah, Ulf D Kahlert and Jaroslaw Maciaczyk

Development and characterization of a Yucatan miniature biomedical pig permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion stroke model

Efforts to develop stroke treatments have met with limited success despite an intense need to produce novel treatments. The failed translation of many of these therapies in clinical trials has lead to a close ...

Authors: Simon R Platt, Shannon P Holmes, Elizabeth W Howerth, Kylee Jo J Duberstein, C Robert Dove, Holly A Kinder, Emily L Wyatt, Amie V Linville, Vivian W Lau, Steven L Stice, William D Hill, David C Hess and Franklin D West

Glatiramer acetate does not protect from acute ischemic stroke in mice

The role of the immune system in the pathophysiology of acute ischemic stroke is increasingly recognized. However, targeted treatment strategies to modulate immunological pathways in stroke are still lacking. ...

Authors: Peter Kraft, Kerstin Göbel, Sven G Meuth and Christoph Kleinschnitz

Forced arm use is superior to voluntary training for motor recovery and brain plasticity after cortical ischemia in rats

Both the immobilization of the unaffected arm combined with physical therapy (forced arm use, FAU) and voluntary exercise (VE) as model for enriched environment are promising approaches to enhance recovery aft...

Authors: Armin Schneider, Andreas Rogalewski, Oliver Wafzig, Friederike Kirsch, Norbert Gretz, Carola Krüger, Kai Diederich, Claudia Pitzer, Rico Laage, Christian Plaas, Gerhard Vogt, Jens Minnerup and Wolf-Rüdiger Schäbitz

Analysis of early phase and subsequent phase III stroke studies of neuroprotectants: outcomes and predictors for success

Efficacy of neuroprotective treatments for ischemic stroke was not convincingly demonstrated in clinical phase III trials so far, whereas some preceding early phase studies found neuroprotection to be benefici...

Authors: Jens Minnerup, Heike Wersching, Matthias Schilling and Wolf Rüdiger Schäbitz

Intravital imaging in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats-a pilot study

There is growing evidence that endothelial failure and subsequent blood brain barrier (BBB) breakdown initiate cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) pathology. In spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats (S...

Authors: Solveig Niklass, Stoyan Stoyanov, Cornelia Garz, Celine Z Bueche, Stine Mencl, Klaus Reymann, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Roxana O Carare, Christoph Kleinschnitz and Stefanie Schreiber

Ischemia-induced cell depolarization: does the hyperpolarization-activated cation channel HCN2 affect the outcome after stroke in mice?

Brain ischemia is known to include neuronal cell death and persisting neurological deficits. A lack of oxygen and glucose are considered to be key mediators of ischemic neurodegeneration while the exact mechan...

Authors: Petra Ehling, Eva Göb, Stefan Bittner, Thomas Budde, Andreas Ludwig, Christoph Kleinschnitz and Sven G Meuth

Report on the 5‘th scientific meeting of the “Verein zur Förderung des Wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses in der Neurologie” (NEUROWIND e.V.) held in Motzen, Germany, Oct. 25th – Oct. 27th, 2013

From october 25th - 27th 2013, the 5th NEUROWIND e.V. meeting was held in Motzen, Brandenburg, Germany. This year more than 60 doctoral students and postdocs from over 25 different groups working in German uni...

Authors: Ralf A Linker, Tim Magnus, Thomas Korn, Christoph Kleinschnitz and Sven G Meuth

Guideline clinical nutrition in patients with stroke

Stroke is regularly accompanied by dysphagia and other factors associated with decreased nutritional intake. Dysphagia with aspiration pneumonia and insufficient nutritional intake lead to worse outcome after ...

Authors: Rainer Wirth, Christine Smoliner, Martin Jäger, Tobias Warnecke, Andreas H Leischker and Rainer Dziewas

Age-dependence of sensorimotor and cerebral electroencephalographic asymmetry in rats subjected to unilateral cerebrovascular stroke

The human population mostly affected by stroke is more than 65 years old. This study was designed to meet the recommendation that models of cerebral ischemia in aged animals are more relevant to the clinical s...

Authors: Slavianka G Moyanova, Rumiana G Mitreva, Lidia V Kortenska, Ferdinando Nicoletti and Richard T Ngomba

Anti-inflammatory IL-10 is upregulated in both hemispheres after experimental ischemic stroke: Hypertension blunts the response

Exogenous administration of the anti-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin 10 (IL-10), is known to promote neuroprotection and mitigate neuroinflammation after ischemia. However, endogenous expression and localiz...

Authors: Abdelrahman Y Fouda, Anna Kozak, Ahmed Alhusban, Jeffrey A Switzer and Susan C Fagan

Coadministration of FTY720 and rt-PA in an experimental model of large hemispheric stroke–no influence on functional outcome and blood–brain barrier disruption

Systemic thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) is the standard of acute stroke care. Its potential to increase the risk of secondary intracerebral hemorrhage, especially if adminis...

Authors: Aijia Cai, Frieder Schlunk, Ferdinand Bohmann, Sepide Kashefiolasl, Robert Brunkhorst, Christian Foerch and Waltraud Pfeilschifter

Erratum to: Reduced infarct size in neuroglobin-null mice after experimental stroke in vivo

Authors: Zindy Raida, Christian Ansgar Hundahl, Jesper Kelsen, Jens Randel Nyengaard and Anders Hay-Schmidt

An experimental protocol for in vivo imaging of neuronal structural plasticity with 2-photon microscopy in mice

Structural plasticity with synapse formation and elimination is a key component of memory capacity and may be critical for functional recovery after brain injury. Here we describe in detail two surgical techni...

Authors: Christian Stetter, Markus Hirschberg, Bernhard Nieswandt, Ralf-Ingo Ernestus, Manfred Heckmann and Anna-Leena Sirén

Early microvascular dysfunction in cerebral small vessel disease is not detectable on 3.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging: a longitudinal study in spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats

Human cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) has distinct histopathologic and imaging findings in its advanced stages. In spontaneously hypertensive stroke-prone rats (SHRSP), a well-established animal model of ...

Authors: Stine Mencl, Cornelia Garz, Solveig Niklass, Holger Braun, Eva Göb, György Homola, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Klaus G Reymann, Christoph Kleinschnitz and Stefanie Schreiber

Anti-Vascular endothelial growth factor therapy impairs endothelial function of retinal microcirculation in colon cancer patients – an observational study

To assess acute effects of bevacizumab (anti-VEGF therapy) on cerebral microvessels and systemic cardiovascular regulation.

Authors: Manja Reimann, Gunnar Folprecht, Rocco Haase, Karolin Trautmann, Gerhard Ehninger, Heinz Reichmann, Focke Ziemssen and Tjalf Ziemssen

Magnesium treatment for neuroprotection in ischemic diseases of the brain

This article reviews experimental and clinical data on the use of magnesium as a neuroprotective agent in various conditions of cerebral ischemia. Whereas magnesium has shown neuroprotective properties in anim...

Authors: Thomas Westermaier, Christian Stetter, Ekkehard Kunze, Nadine Willner, Furat Raslan, Giles H Vince and Ralf-Ingo Ernestus

NAC changes the course of cerebral small vessel disease in SHRSP and reveals new insights for the meaning of stases - a randomized controlled study

N-Acetylcystein (NAC) reduces the reperfusion injury and infarct size in experimental macroangiopathic stroke. Here we now investigate the impact of NAC on the development of the histopathology of microangiopa...

Authors: Celine Zoe Bueche, Cornelia Garz, Siegfried Kropf, Daniel Bittner, Wenjie Li, Michael Goertler, Hans-Jochen Heinze, Klaus Reymann, Holger Braun and Stefanie Schreiber

Blood brain barrier breakdown as the starting point of cerebral small vessel disease? - New insights from a rat model

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD, cerebral microangiopathy) leads to dementia and stroke-like symptoms. Lacunes, white matter lesions (WML) and microbleeds are the main pathological correlates depicted in i...

Authors: Stefanie Schreiber, Celine Zoe Bueche, Cornelia Garz and Holger Braun

Erratum to: Two pore domain potassium channels in cerebral ischemia: a focus on K2P9.1 (TASK3, KCNK9)

Authors: Petra Ehling, Stefan Bittner, Nicole Bobak, Tobias Schwarz, Heinz Wiendl, Thomas Budde, Christoph Kleinschnitz and Sven G Meuth

Animal models of post-ischemic forced use rehabilitation: methods, considerations, and limitations

Many survivors of stroke experience arm impairments, which can severely impact their quality of life. Forcing use of the impaired arm appears to improve functional recovery in post-stroke hemiplegic patients, ...

Authors: Jessica M Livingston-Thomas and R Andrew Tasker

Role of N-Nitro-L-Arginine-Methylester as anti-oxidant in transient cerebral ischemia and reperfusion in rats

Previous reports assessing the neuroprotective role of nonselective Nitric Oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor N-nitro-L-arginine-methylester (L-NAME) following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion are contradictory. The ...

Authors: Hiba A Awooda, Mohamed F Lutfi, Gihan M Sharara and Amal M Saeed

The combination of stem cell factor and granulocyte-colony stimulating factor for chronic stroke treatment in aged animals

Stroke occurs more frequently in the elderly population and presents the number one leading cause of persistent disability worldwide. Lack of effective treatment to enhance brain repair and improve functional ...

Authors: Chun-Shu Piao, Maria E Gonzalez-Toledo, Xi Gu and Li-Ru Zhao

Indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase activity in experimental human endotoxemia

Excessive tryptophan metabolism to kynurenine by the rate-limiting enzyme endothelial indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO) controls arterial vessel relaxation and causes hypotension in murine endotoxemia. Howev...

Authors: Jan-Sören Padberg, Matijs Van Meurs, Jan T Kielstein, Jens Martens-Lobenhoffer, Stefanie M Bode-Böger, Jan G Zijlstra, Csaba P Kovesdy and Philipp Kümpers

A modified double injection model of cisterna magna for the study of delayed cerebral vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage in rats

Delayed cerebral vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a serious medical complication, characterized by constriction of cerebral arteries leading to varying degrees of cerebral ischemia. Numerou...

Authors: Furat Raslan, Christiane Albert-Weißenberger, Thomas Westermaier, Saker Saker, Christoph Kleinschnitz and Jin-Yul Lee

Report on the 4'th scientific meeting of the “Verein zur Förderung des Wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchses in der Neurologie” (NEUROWIND e.V.) held in Motzen, Germany, Nov. 2’nd – Nov. 4’th, 2012

From November 2^nd - 4^th 2012, the 4^th NEUROWIND e.V. meeting was held in Motzen, Brandenburg, Germany. Again more than 60 participants, predominantly at the doctoral student or postdoc level, gathered to share th...

Authors: Ralf A Linker, Sven G Meuth, Tim Magnus, Thomas Korn and Christoph Kleinschnitz

Aldosterone and the mineralocorticoid receptor in the cerebral circulation and stroke

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Elevated plasma aldosterone levels are an independent cardiovascular risk factor and are thought to contribute to hypertension, a major ...

Authors: Quynh N Dinh, Thiruma V Arumugam, Morag J Young, Grant R Drummond, Christopher G Sobey and Sophocles Chrissobolis

Isolation of inflammatory cells from rat brain tissue after stroke

The pathophysiology of sterile inflammation following focal ischemic stroke is complex and not fully understood, but there is growing evidence that it offers several therapeutic options beyond the hitherto exi...

Authors: Karoline Möller, Tobias Stahl, Johannes Boltze and Daniel-Christoph Wagner

Docosahexaenoic acid complexed to human albumin in experimental stroke: neuroprotective efficacy with a wide therapeutic window

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) complexed to human serum albumin (Alb) is neuroprotective after experimental stroke. Here we tested using lower concentrations of albumin as part of the complex to achieve neuroprote...

Authors: Tiffany N Eady, Larissa Khoutorova, Kristal D Atkins, Nicolas G Bazan and Ludmila Belayev

Thromboembolic stroke in C57BL/6 mice monitored by 9.4 T MRI using a 1H cryo probe

A new thromboembolic animal model showed beneficial effects of t-PA with an infarct volume reduction of 36.8% in swiss mice. Because knock-out animal experiments for stroke frequently used C57BL76 mice we eval...

Authors: Friederike L Langhauser, Patrick M Heiler, Saskia Grudzenski, Andreas Lemke, Angelika Alonso, Lothar R Schad, Michael G Hennerici, Stephen Meairs and Marc Fatar

Impact of age on the efficacy of bone marrow mononuclear cell transplantation in experimental stroke

Bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM MNC) have been effectively used to treat experimental stroke. Most of the preclinical trials have been performed in young and healthy laboratory animals, even though a...

Authors: Daniel-Christoph Wagner, Mitja Bojko, Myriam Peters, Marlene Lorenz, Cornelia Voigt, Alexander Kaminski, Dirk Hasenclever, Markus Scholz, Alexander Kranz, Gesa Weise and Johannes Boltze

Neuroprotective effect of an angiotensin receptor type 2 agonist following cerebral ischemia in vitro and in vivo

Intracerebral administration of the angiotensin II type 2 receptor (AT₂R) agonist, CGP42112, is neuroprotective in a rat model of ischemic stroke. To explore further its possible cellular target(s) and therapeuti...

Authors: Seyoung Lee, Vanessa H Brait, Thiruma V Arumugam, Megan A Evans, Hyun Ah Kim, Robert E Widdop, Grant R Drummond, Christopher G Sobey and Emma S Jones

Reduced infarct size in neuroglobin-null mice after experimental stroke in vivo

Neuroglobin is considered to be a novel important pharmacological target in combating stroke and neurodegenerative disorders, although the mechanism by which this protection is accomplished remains an enigma. ...

Authors: Zindy Raida, Christian Ansgar Hundahl, Jesper Kelsen, Jens Randel Nyengaard and Anders Hay-Schmidt