Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) provides the merits such as easy to obtain and small injury. Its low immunogenicity and its potential to easily induce immune tolerance make allogeneic transplant feasible without human leucocyte antigen matching to reduce the adverse effects of immunosupprassants. Density gradient centrifugation has been mostly used to isolate and culture BMSCs in vitro, which can be identified according to biological characteristics, cell surface markers, multi-differentiation potential, low immunogenicity and immune regulation. BMSCs are form the mesoderm, but they can be induced towards the calls from endoderm or ectoderm. Generally, BMSCs of the fifth passage are selected. In addition to use of conventional inducing agents, such as nerve growth factors, ratinoic acid, brain-derived growth factors, basic fibroblast growth factors, and epidermal growth factors, docesahexenoic acid and arachidonic acid are added to accelerate the neuron-like cell differentiation of BMSCs and concomitantly to promote the growth of neuronal axon. However, the security of BMSCs transplantation, in particular the tumorigenicity of tissue, requires further investigation.

OBJECTIVETo compare the neuroprotective effects of intracarotid cold saline infusion (ICSI), ice cap and systemic cooling in rats with early cerebral ischemia.

METHODSSD rats were randomly divided into model group, ice cap group, systemic cooling group and ICSI group (n=13). Cerebral ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 h. In the 3 hypothermic groups, the target temperature of 33-34 degrees celsius; was achieved and maintained for 20 min. In each group, the neurological scores were recorded at 48 h after the reperfusion, and the brains were removed for measuring the infarct size using 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. The brain water contents and serum levels of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), S100β and matrix metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9) were also measured.

RESULTSCompared with the model group, the ice cap, systemic cooling and ICSI groups all showed significantly reduced infarct size by 27.4% (P<0.05), 47.6% (P<0.01) and 61.6% (P<0.01), respectively. The systemic cooling and ICSI groups, but not the ice cap group, had significantly lower brain water contents than the model group (P<0.05). Among the 3 hypothermic methods, only ICSI significantly improved the neurological scores (P<0.05) and reduced serum NSE and S100β levels (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONOf the 3 hypothermic groups, ICSI has the best neuroprotective effects, and systemic cooling produces better effect than ice cap in rats with ischemic stroke.

Animals ; Brain Ischemia ; therapy ; Cryotherapy ; methods ; Hypothermia, Induced ; methods ; Infusions, Intra-Arterial ; Male ; Rats ; Rats, Sprague-Dawley ; Reperfusion Injury ; prevention & control ; Sodium Chloride ; administration & dosage

In addition to visual field defects, occipital lobe injury can also cause fundus changes, such as retinal nerve fiber layer atrophy, ganglion cell complex atrophy and even optic nerve atrophy, and these fundus changes have a good correlation with the visual field defect site. It is considered to be caused by transneuronal retrograde degeneration (TRD) of retinal ganglion cells secondary to occipital lobe injury. These changes can be detected by means of optical coherence tomography, fundus examination, magnetic resonance imaging, etc. Among them, optical coherence tomography is more sensitive than other examinations. Here, the anatomical basis of TRD, case reports, pathogenesis, auxiliary examination, treatment and prognosis of TRD secondary to occipital lobe injury are reviewd.

Cerebral developmental venous anomaly (DVA) is a kind of benign vascular malformation that mainly occurs supratentorially.Its diagnosis mainly depends on imaging examination.It is often misdiagnosed or missed because of low incidence and atypical clinical manifestations.This article reviews the etiology,pathogenesis,clinical manifestations,imaging features,and prognosis of DVA.

Fornix infarction is a kind of cerebral infarction in special sites with memory disorder as its main manifestation, which is rare in clinical practice. Because the isolated fornix infarction is not often accompanied by obvious positive signs of nervous system, the patients complained fewer symptoms. The related manifestations were mostly provided by family members, which is prone to misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis. This article reviews fornix infarction from the aspect of anatomy, blood supply, infarction etiology, clinical manifestations, possible mechanisms, and imaging features by summarizing the available case reports.