Current Neurovascular Research - Volume 12, Issue 1, 2015

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by extracellular beta-amyloid plaques and intracellular tau tangles. AD-related pathology is often accompanied by vascular changes. The predominant vascular lesions in AD are cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and arteriosclerosis. Platelets circulate along the vessel wall responding immediately to vascular injury. The aim of the present study was to explore the presence and Read More

Binding of thromboxane A2 (TXA2) to its receptor TXA2R modulates thrombosis/hemostasis and plays a vital role in the pathogenesis of cerebral infarction (CI). In this study, we investigated the relationship between TXA2R polymorphisms and CI in Chinese Han population and the effect on platelet function by these polymorphisms. Polymerase chain reaction and ligase detection reaction (PCR-LDR) was performed in 230 CI p Read More

Antiendothelial cell antibodies (AECAs) have been detected in patients who have autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Previous studies showed that AECAs against human umbilical vein endothelial cells were detected in healthy subjects. In the present study, we evaluated AECAs against human brain microvascular endothelial cells (HBMEC) in serum. We detected 250 antigen spots that reacted with AECAs in serum sampl Read More

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a significant source of morbidity and mortality for millions of people worldwide, and multiple potential etiologies have been postulated to contribute to AD. Among these, spontaneous cerebral emboli and increased cerebral and circulating heme oxygenase (Hmox) activity in AD patients are of particular interest, as two of the products of Hmox activity, carbon monoxide (CO) and iron enhance plasm Read More

This study investigated the correlation of serum cystatin C levels with cerebral infarction (CI) and different subtypes of CI, the severity of CI and the risk of recurrent CI. Totally 1017 patients with CI and 534 healthy controls were included, with clinical and biochemical characteristics documented and analyzed. The results showed serum cystatin C were 0.93 ± 0.21 mg/l and 1.19 ± 0.5 mg/l in control and CI, respectively (p < 0.001) Read More

Urinary creatinine excretion rate (CER) is an established marker of muscle mass. Low CER has been linked to poor coronary artery disease outcomes, but a link between CER and acute stroke prognosis has not been previously explored. We prospectively collected data from patients with acute stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic) within 24 hours from symptom onset in a Neurological and Neurosurgery Intensive Care Unit in Read More

Despite recent advances in microsurgical techniques and equipments, recovery of function following repair of transected nerves often remains suboptimal. Contrary to traumatic injuries vascular damage that causes peripheral nerve injury has not been well-documented in the literature. In the present study a total of 40 female rats were randomly divided into four groups: Group 1: intact controls (n: 10), Group 2: sham-oper Read More

Heat shock protein B8 (HspB8) is a chaperone protein that is highly and constitutively expressed in the brain, cardiac tissue and many other organs. Recently, it has been shown that HspB8 can enhance cardiac function and render cardioprotection. However, the potential benefits of HspB8 action on ischemic stroke and the underlying mechanism(s) are largely unknown. To investigate whether HspB8 exerts protective effects on in Read More

Studies have suggested that ketamine, a nonselective NMDA receptor antagonist, could be a new drug in the treatment of major depression, but the way ketamine presents such effects remains to be elucidated. Therefore, the objective of this paper was to evaluate the effects of ketamine treatment on parameters related to depression in the brain of adult rats subjected to an animal model of depression. The animals were Read More

The role played by hemostasis in the pathogenesis of ischemic stroke is still controversial. In the present study, we looked for a possible association of ischemic stroke with the high clotting activity of factor VIII (FVIII). The study population consisted of 116 patients with acute ischemic stroke who had been admitted between September 2013 and September 2014 to the Department of Neurology, Chiayi Chang Gung Memorial Hospi Read More

An angiotensin 2 type 1 receptor blocker (ARB) telmisartan possesses not only an anti-hypertensive effect but also an anti-metabolic syndrome effect due to peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPAR-γ) activation. In the present study, we examined the effects of telmisartan on the angiotensin 2 type 1 receptor (AT1R), PPAR-γ, and insulin receptor (IR) in stroke-resistant spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR-SR), co Read More

Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is one of the most common household herbs, used as spices in a variety of foods, and employed in traditional medicine for its healing properties. Rosemary is a rich source of active antioxidant constituents such as phenolic diterpenes, flavonoids and phenolic acids. Caffeic acid and rosmarinic acid are the most important bioactive constituents. Rosmarinic acid is the ester of caffeic aci Read More