Journal of neurotrauma
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Journal of neurotrauma · Aug 2019
Impaired Cerebral Vasoreactivity Despite Symptom Resolution in Sports-Related Concussion.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with increased risk of later-life neurodegeneration and dementia. However, the underpinning mechanisms are poorly understood, and secondary injury resulting from perturbed physiological processes plays a significant role. Cerebral vasoreactivity (CVR), a measure of hemodynamic reserve, is known to be impaired in TBI. ⋯ We show that CVR is impaired as early as 4 days and remains impaired up to 3 months post-injury despite symptom resolution. Persistent perturbations in CVR may therefore be involved in secondary injury. Future studies with a larger sample size and longer follow-up period are needed to validate this finding and delineate the duration of this vulnerable period.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Aug 2019
ReviewDiffusion Tensor Imaging in Acute Spinal Cord Injury - A Review of Animal and Human Studies.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), based on the property of preferential diffusion of water molecules in biological tissue, is seeing increasing clinical application in the pathologies of the central nervous system. Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one such area where the use of DTI allows for the evaluation of changes to microstructure of the spinal cord not detected on routine conventional magnetic resonance imaging. The insights obtained from pre-clinical models of SCI indicate correlation of quantitative DTI indices with histology and function, which points to the potential of DTI as a non-invasive, viable biomarker for integrity of white matter tracts in the spinal cord. In this review, we describe DTI alterations in the acute phase of SCI in both animal models and human subjects and explore the underlying pathophysiology behind these changes.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Aug 2019
Effect of differently polarized macrophages on proliferation and differentiation of ependymal cells from adult spinal cord.
Ependymal cells (EpCs) are a kind of multi-potent stem cells in the central canal of adult spinal cord, which proliferate following spinal cord injury (SCI). Although they can differentiate into functional neurons in vitro, EpC progeny differentiate mainly into astrocytes after SCI, and the mechanism remains unclear. The present study aimed to explore whether neuroinflammation induced by classically activated macrophages (M1) or alternatively activated macrophages (M2) had an effect on EpC proliferation and/or differentiation. ⋯ Co-culture in M2 conditioned medium obviously increased the proportion of βIII-tubulin-positive cells (p < 0.01). Small amounts of MAP2-positive neurons could be detected on day 7 in the M2 group and the control group. M1 conditioned medium could promote EpC proliferation in response to SCI through the TNFα-MAPK-Sox2 signaling pathway; M2 conditioned medium favors EpCs differentiating toward neurons.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Aug 2019
Meta AnalysisSpecific Brain Morphometric Changes in Spinal Cord Injury: A Voxel-Based Meta-Analysis of White and Gray Matter Volume.
The objective of the study was to investigate degenerative changes of white matter volume (WMV) and gray matter volume (GMV) in individuals after a spinal cord injury (SCI). Published studies of whole-brain voxel-based morphometry (VBM) published between January 1, 2006 and March 1, 2018 comparing SCI patients with controls were collected by searching PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases. Voxel-wise meta-analyses of GMV and WMV differences between SCI patients and controls were performed separately using seed-based d mapping. ⋯ In conclusion, anatomical atrophy in cortical-thalamic-spinal pathways suggested that SCIs may result in degenerative changes of the sensorimotor system. Further, OFC and insula GMV abnormalities may explain symptoms such as neuropathic pain and potential cognitive-emotional impairments in chronic SCI patients. These findings indicate that anatomical brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocols could be neuroimaging biomarkers for interventional studies and treatments.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Aug 2019
Multicenter Study Observational StudyMicroRNA Biomarkers in Cerebrospinal Fluid and Serum Reflect Injury Severity in Human Acute Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury.
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition with variability in injury mechanisms and neurologic recovery. Spinal cord impairment after SCI is measured and classified by a widely accepted standard neurological examination. In the very acute stages post-injury, however, this examination is extremely challenging (and often impossible) to conduct and has modest prognostic value in terms of neurological recovery. ⋯ We identified a severity-dependent pattern of change in microRNA expression in CSF and identified a set of microRNA that are diagnostic of baseline AIS classification and prognostic of neurological outcome six months post-injury. The data presented here provide a comprehensive description of the CSF and serum microRNA expression changes that occur after acute human SCI. This data set reveals microRNA candidates that warrant further evaluation as biomarkers of injury severity after SCI and as key regulators in other neurological disorders.