When a stroke strikes, the supply of blood to the part of the brain affected is interrupted, starving it of oxygen. Brain cells can be seriously damaged or die, impairing local brain function.
But the brain is a battler. Within weeks of a stroke, new blood vessels begin to form, and, like marching ants, newly born neurons migrate long distances to the damaged area to aid the regeneration process. What is not known, however, is what cellular environment and what cellular cues are necessary for this process of regeneration and migration to take place.
Now, in the Journal of Neuroscience currently online, Dr. S. Thomas Carmichael, assistant professor in the neurology department at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and his colleagues report that in a mouse model, this neuron march is the direct result of signaling from the newly blooming blood vessels, thus causally linking angiogenesis ? the development of new blood vessels ? and neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons. Further, they have identified what these molecular signals are. The results hold promise for eventual clinical applications that may spur brain repair after stroke.
Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability, Carmichael said. And while much is known about the mechanisms of cell death in stroke, little is known about the mechanisms of neurological recovery after a stroke. Carmichael’s lab studies the mechanisms of brain repair and the recovery of function after stroke.