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Nervous System Diseases

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Neuroinflammation

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

An Approach For The In-Vivo Characterization Of Brain And Heart Inflammation In Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Joanne Tang Sep 2020

An Approach For The In-Vivo Characterization Of Brain And Heart Inflammation In Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Joanne Tang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by dystrophin loss—notably within muscles and CNS neurons. DMD presents as cognitive weakness, progressive skeletal and cardiac muscle degeneration until pre-mature death from cardiac or respiratory failure. Innovative therapies improved life expectancy, but this is accompanied by increased late-onset heart failure and emergent cognitive degeneration. Thus, there is an increasing need to both better understand and track disease pathophysiology in the dystrophic heart and brain prior to onset of severe degenerative symptoms. Chronic inflammation is strongly associated with skeletal and cardiac muscle degeneration, however chronic neuroinflammation’s role is largely unknown in …


The Brain-Heart Connection: Establishment Of A Novel Rodent Model Of Focal Insular Ischemic Stroke To Examine The Pathophysiology Of Stroke-Induced Heart Injury, Victoria Thorburn Sep 2018

The Brain-Heart Connection: Establishment Of A Novel Rodent Model Of Focal Insular Ischemic Stroke To Examine The Pathophysiology Of Stroke-Induced Heart Injury, Victoria Thorburn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The neurological influence of ischemic stroke in the generation of stroke-induced heart injury (SIHI) has been acknowledged for several years. However, pathophysiological mechanisms remain uncertain. Clinically, it is hypothesized that stroke involving the insular cortex (IC) initiates SIHI, since the IC controls autonomic regulation of cardiovascular function. Yet, given the high prevalence of shared risk factors between ischemic stroke and cardiovascular disorders, mechanistic conclusions from clinical studies are largely speculative. We therefore sought to establish a novel rodent model of focal insular ischemic stroke, used to evaluate chronic outcomes of SIHI. Focal ischemic stroke was induced into the right or …


Behavioural Inflexibility And White Matter Inflammation In An Aged Happ Rat With Subcortical Stroke, Aaron M. Regis Dec 2016

Behavioural Inflexibility And White Matter Inflammation In An Aged Happ Rat With Subcortical Stroke, Aaron M. Regis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The interactions between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and ischemic stroke pathology are of key interest in the development of post-stroke cognitive decline. While clinical and experimental studies have suggested an interaction, the mechanisms whereby these conditions interact to worsen cognition haven’t been fully revealed. This study aimed to combine rodent models of AD and stroke in an aged rat and assess the behavioural and histological outcomes. An injection of endothelin-1 (ET-1), a potent vasoconstrictor into the basal ganglia of a rat with human amyloid precursor protein (hAPP) overexpression (F344Tg) was followed up 3 months later to assess behavioural flexibility, memory and …


Role Of Cerebrovascular Abnormality In Neurodegenerative Disease And Subcortical Ischemic Disease: Ct Perfusion And Pet Imaging, Jun Yang Sep 2015

Role Of Cerebrovascular Abnormality In Neurodegenerative Disease And Subcortical Ischemic Disease: Ct Perfusion And Pet Imaging, Jun Yang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Clinical studies indicate that about 30% ~ 50% of patients have cognitive impairment after the first or recurrent stroke. Ischemic injury, particularly subcortical lesions, caused by stroke has been demonstrated to further exacerbate cognitive impairment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and vascular dementia. However, the mechanisms whereby cerebrovascular abnormalities contribute to neurodegeneration at early stage of disease and eventually to cognitive decline remain unclear. CT perfusion and positron emission tomography (PET) were used to investigate early mechanisms in a rat comorbid model of cerebral ischemia (CI) and β-amyloid (Aβ, a pathological hallmark of AD) toxicity, and in patients with small subcortical …


An Investigation Into The Combined Effects Of Β-Amyloid Toxicity And Cerebral Ischemia On The Pathological Expression Of Gangliosides., Jeffrey D. Hepburn Oct 2012

An Investigation Into The Combined Effects Of Β-Amyloid Toxicity And Cerebral Ischemia On The Pathological Expression Of Gangliosides., Jeffrey D. Hepburn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Identifying mechanisms underlying the synergistic pathological interaction between stroke and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can effectively guide future therapeutic strategies for these highly co-morbid conditions. Aberrant ganglioside expression marked by the pathological accumulation of ganglioside GM3 is common to stroke and AD, yet it is unclear whether GM3 is synergistically enhanced in a comorbid model, or if GM3 is a viable therapeutic target. Adult male Wistar rats received a unilateral ischemic striatal infarct via endothelin-1 (ET-1) injection alone or in combination with bilateral intracerebroventricular injection of the β-Amyloid 25-35 peptide (Aβ) to induce generalized Aβ toxicity (Aβ/ET-1). Animals were sacrificed after …