Novel and bizarre method for preventing stroke damage

[dzero]

As described November 15 at a news conference for the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting, rats who suffered simulated strokes avoided any permanent damage if just one of their whiskers were stimulated for less than 5 minutes.

Obviously it is still a bit of a leap from rats to humans, but in people, comparable stimulation would be of the lips or possibly fingers/finger tips.

It sounds bizarre but scientists reviewing scans of the rat brains couldn’t tell that there had been any kind of trauma.

The apparent mechanism is described as follows:

With whisker stimulation, the team saw that blood began to flow backward through the severed vessel and got rerouted through other vessels, ultimately reaching the brain area that would have been deprived of blood. No such rerouting was present in rats that didn’t have a whisker stimulated, or in rats that had whisker stimulation more than two hours after the stroke. The team’s preliminary data suggest that the method works for conscious rats, too.

Brain imaging experiments found no evidence that a stroke had even occurred in the whisker-brushed rats. “I have looked at these images for 20 years, and I cannot tell you that this animal went through a major trauma,” said Frostig. “It looks exactly the same” as a scans of healthy rats.

[USCDiver]

Here’s a link to an article describing a new device that helps mitigate the damage done by strokes (and possibly heart attacks in the future). Essentially there is a cap that shoots infrared radiation into the brain which helps to inhibit cell death. The effects are not due to the thermal effects, but a result of the specific wavelength used. My hospital is currently involved in some phase of human trials.

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/38/6/1843

[dzero]

@USCDiver

Here’s a link to an article describing a new device that helps mitigate the damage done by strokes (and possibly heart attacks in the future). Essentially there is a cap that shoots infrared radiation into the brain which helps to inhibit cell death. The effects are not due to the thermal effects, but a result of the specific wavelength used. My hospital is currently involved in some phase of human trials.

http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/38/6/1843

Very interesting - especially this quote

Cytochrome c oxidase is a terminal enzyme in the cellular respiratory chain and is located in the inner mitochondrial membrane. It plays a central role in the bioenergetics of eukaryotic cells by delivering protons across the inner membrane, and thereby driving the formation of ATP by oxidative phosphorylation. In addition to leading to increased ATP formation, photobiostimulation may also initiate secondary cell-signaling pathways. The overall result is improved energy metabolism, enhanced cell viability, and may also involve prevention of apoptosis in the ischemic penumbra and enhancement of neurorecovery mechanisms.

What causes the most damage is the glutamate cascade resulting from the large number of cells that die initially. My guess would be that one of the pathways that stimulation alters is the one that ultimately causes apoptosis and the release of large amounts of glutamate. That’s what they’re talking about when they say that it “may also involve prevention of apoptosis in the ischemic penumbra.”

Thanks for the excellent link.

[Maastricht]

That is really weird. I hope they come soon with a recommendation how to do this in humans.

My best friends brother just died this weekend from a heavy stroke. He was just 44 years old. Earlier this year, her boyfriend also suffered stroke, leaving him alive, but a bitter invalid with a changed personality. He was just 42.

Stroke is a killer.

[drastic_quench]

Aren’t rodent’s whiskers a highly sensitive sense organ (at the base, not the actual hair). For a human, you’d think it’d have to be an area loaded with nerve endings, like fingertips, or failing that, nothing a bawdy nurse could handle.

[Dallas_Jones]

Could this explain why I crave cheese after shaving?

[Darryl_Lict]

@drastic_quench

Aren’t rodent’s whiskers a highly sensitive sense organ (at the base, not the actual hair). For a human, you’d think it’d have to be an area loaded with nerve endings, like fingertips, or failing that, nothing a bawdy nurse could handle.

OK, so I guess the proper response to a stroke is to immediately start beating off with your non-paralyzed hand. Just make sure you last for 5 minutes.

[TriPolar]

Stroke to treat stroke.

[Boyo_Jim]

Oh man, wouldn’t it be interesting if the treatment for a stroke would be to immediately start jerking off the victim. If it works for a whisker, stimulating the penis or clitoris might result in a super-genius resuscitation.