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Query: UMLS:C0022116 (ischemia)
 91,303 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We used various antibodies to the beta amyloid precursor protein (APP) of Alzheimer's disease to study changes in the cellular distribution of APP in experimental ischemic brain injury. In contrast to sham operated controls, rats with repeated reversible occlusions of one middle cerebral artery showed striking APP reactivity in astrocytic processes in perifocal regions and white matter tracts. Dystrophic axons and neurons with accumulated APP were also evident in the ipsilateral neocortex and hippocampus. Such changes were also apparent in rats subjected to partial forebrain ischemia by bilateral occlusion of the carotid arteries. Our studies suggest that focal ischemic insults or chronic hypoperfusion leads to increased accumulation of APP in surviving brain cells that may pertain to enhanced beta amyloid deposition in Alzheimer's disease.
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PMID:Accumulation of the beta amyloid precursor protein at sites of ischemic injury in rat brain. 845 62

Several cellular signaling systems have been implicated in the neuronal death that occurs both in development ("natural" cell death) or in pathological conditions such as stroke and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here we consider the possibility that neuronal degeneration in an array of disorders including stroke and AD arises from one or more alterations in calcium-regulating systems that result in a loss of cellular calcium homeostasis. A long-standing hypothesis of neuronal injury, the excitatory amino acid (EAA) hypothesis, is revisited in light of new supportive data concerning the roles of EAAs in stroke and the neurofibrillary degeneration in AD. Two quite new concepts concerning mechanisms of neuronal injury and death are presented, namely: 1) growth factors normally "stabilize" intracellular free calcium levels ([Ca2+]i) and protect neurons against ischemic/excitotoxic injury, and 2) aberrant processing of beta-amyloid precursor protein (APP) can cause neurodegeneration by impairing a neuroprotective function of secreted forms of APP (APPs) which normally regulate [Ca2+]i. Altered APP processing also results in the accumulation of beta-amyloid peptide which contributes to neuronal damage by destabilizing calcium homeostasis; in AD beta-amyloid peptide may render neurons vulnerable to excitotoxic conditions that accrue with increasing age (e.g., altered glucose metabolism, ischemia). Growth factors may normally protect neurons against the potentially damaging effects of calcium influx resulting from energy deprivation and overexcitation. For example, bFGF, NGF and IGFs can protect neurons from several brain regions against excitotoxic/ischemic insults. Growth factors apparently stabilize [Ca2+]i by several means including: a reduction in calcium influx; enhanced calcium extrusion or buffering; and maintenance or improvement of mitochondrial function. For example, bFGF can suppress the expression of a N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor protein that mediates excitotoxic damage in hippocampal neurons. Growth factors may also prevent the loss of neuronal calcium homeostasis and the increased vulnerability to neuronal injury caused by beta-amyloid peptide. Since elevated [Ca2+]i can elicit cytoskeletal alterations similar to those seen in AD neurofibrillary tangles, we propose that neuronal damage in AD results from a loss of calcium homeostasis. The data indicate that a variety of alterations in [Ca2+]i regulation may contribute to the neuronal damage in stroke and AD, and suggest possible means of preventing neuronal damage in these disorders.
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PMID:Altered calcium signaling and neuronal injury: stroke and Alzheimer's disease as examples. 851 77

Aberrant elevations in intracellular calcium levels, promoted by the excitatory amino acid glutamate, may be a final common mediator of the neuronal damage that occurs in hypoxic-ischemic and seizure disorders. Glutamate and altered neuronal calcium homeostasis have also been proposed to play roles in more chronic neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. Any extrinsic factors that may augment calcium levels during such disorders may significantly exacerbate the resulting damage. Glucocorticoids (GCs), the adrenal steroid hormones released during stress, may represent one such extrinsic factor. GCs can exacerbate hippocampal damage induced by excitotoxic seizures and hypoxia-ischemia, and we have observed recently that GCs elevate intracellular calcium levels in hippocampal neurons. We now report that the excitotoxin kainic acid (KA) can elicit antigenic changes in the microtubule-associated protein tau similar to those seen in the neurofibrillary tangles of Alzheimer's disease. KA induced a transient increase in the immunoreactivity of hippocampal CA3 neurons towards antibodies that recognize aberrant forms of tau (5E2 and Alz-50). The tau immunoreactivity appeared within 3 h of KA injection, preceded extensive neuronal damage, and subsequently disappeared as neurons degenerated. KA also caused spectrin breakdown, indicating the involvement of calcium-dependent proteases. Physiological concentrations of corticosterone (the species-typical GC of rats) enhanced the neuronal damage induced by KA and, critically, enhanced the intensity of tau immunoreactivity and spectrin breakdown. Moreover, the GC enhancement of spectrin proteolysis was prevented by energy supplementation, supporting the hypothesis that GC disruption of calcium homeostasis in the hippocampus is energetic in nature. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that neurofibrillary tangle-like alterations in tau, and spectrin breakdown, can be induced by excitatory amino acids and exacerbated by GCs in vivo.
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PMID:Corticosterone exacerbates kainate-induced alterations in hippocampal tau immunoreactivity and spectrin proteolysis in vivo. 851 88

Neuropathological findings were described in a 9-day-old female infant who died of the vitamin B12 non-responsive (mut0) type of methylmalonic acidemia (MMA). Widespread karyorhectic fragments of varying size and shape were noted throughout the brain, in particular densely accumulated in the cerebellar granular layers and the layer IV of the striate cortex. Bilateral or symmetrical necrotic foci were observed in various regions of the grey matter: Sommer's sector of the hippocampus, basal ganglia, thalamus, hypothalamus and brainstem. In the cerebral cortex small spongy necrotic foci were scattered mainly in the depths of gyri. Alzheimer type II astrocytes appeared in the preserved zone of the caudate nucleus. Myelinated nerve fibers in the brainstem were spongy or vacuolated, whereas peripheral myelin sheaths of cranial nerves were intact. Multiple hemorrhagic foci were noted in the cerebellum, predominantly the granular layers. The lymphoid tissue in the spleen and the thymus was hypoplastic. It may be difficult to explain exactly the mechanisms of the pathological changes observed here on routine light microscopy; the outcome of systemic ischemia/hypoxia before death cannot be completely ignored. But, it is suggested that widespread karyorhexis may occur selectively in specific cells (or cell groups), including immature neurons and other cellular components (glial and/or mesenchymal cells) among the patients with the mut0 type of MMA.
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PMID:Methylmalonic acidemia: brain lesions in a case of vitamin B12 non-responsive (mut0) type. 852 25

Verrucose dysplasias, found at autopsy in the cerebral cortex of three elderly individuals (two without neurological disorders and one with motor neuron disease), are shown to present neurofibrillary degeneration of Alzheimer's disease type. This neurofibrillary degeneration immunoreacted with antibodies against abnormally phosphorylated tau (5E2 and AT8), disclosed acetyl- and butyrylcholinesterase activity, and was consistently stained with thioflavin-S. Cortical dysplasias, found either as isolated verrucose nodules or comprising multiple nodules, contained cell-sparse areas around which a peak of neurofibrillary changes was seen. Cell-sparse areas were sometimes bridged by stripes of neurons and fibers arranged in a radial fashion, and many of these neurons showed neurofibrillary degeneration. Cytoskeletal abnormalities were conspicuous in layers II and III at the external borders of the dysplasias, as well as in neurons located in layers V and VI, and in the white matter beneath layer VI in central zones of each lesion. The morphology of cells undergoing neurofibrillary changes (from early non-fibrillar stages to late extracellular ones) suggests that neurons disturbed in their migration toward the site to which they had been committed may become vulnerable to cytoskeletal changes. Micro-environmental disturbances related to hypoxia-ischemia in the affected cortex are proposed as likely contributing factors for the long-term production of this neurofibrillary degeneration.
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PMID:Alzheimer's disease-type neurofibrillary degeneration in verrucose dysplasias of the cerebral cortex. 854 26

The histoblot immunostaining technique for locating and characterizing amyloidogenic proteins was used to obtain information about the relationship of cerebral ischemia/hypoxia to the accumulation of amyloid beta protein (A beta). We investigated brains of 131 subjects (ages 25-94 years, mean 72 years). Three distribution patterns of A beta immunoreactivity were identified: (1) colocalization with diffuse and neuritic plaques of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and aging; (2) diffuse punctuate deposits in the cerebral cortex in association with small vessel cerebral vascular disease ; and (3) cerebral cortical accumulation localized to arterial boundary zones and other regions susceptible to ischemic/hypoxic injury designated "stress-induced deposits" (SID). SID were not identified in tissue sections by immunohistochemical, Congo red or Bielschowsky silver techniques; no histological abnormalities were present in adjacent formalin-fixed tissue sections, SID occurred in subjects with histories of cerebral ischemia, and severe orthostatic hypotension. There was also an association with aging in general and with the incidence of neuritic plaques specifically. These latter findings are consistent with the hypothesis that brain ischemia/hypoxia plays a role in the pathogenesis of AD.
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PMID:Ischemic stress induces deposition of amyloid beta immunoreactivity in human brain. 856 Sep 78

Organotypic cultures provide a unique strategy with which to examine many aspects of brain physiology and pathology. Long-term slice cultures from the hippocampus, a region involved in memory encoding and one that exhibits early degeneration in Alzheimer's disease and ischemia, are particularly valuable in this regard due to their expression of synaptic plasticity mechanisms (e.g., long-term potentiation) and responsiveness to pathological insults (e.g., excitotoxicity). Long-term slices can be prepared from hippocampi at the second or third postnatal week of development and thus incorporate a number of relatively mature features; further signs of maturation and the preservation of adult-like characteristics occur over succeeding weeks. The stability of the cultured slice renders it an appropriate model for studying 1) prolonged regulation/stabilization events linked to synaptogenesis and certain forms of plasticity, 2) temporal patterns of cellular atrophy associated with pathogenic conditions such as ischemia and epilepsia, and 3) slow processes associated with aging and age-related pathologies.
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PMID:Long-term hippocampal slices: a model system for investigating synaptic mechanisms and pathologic processes. 858 97

Endothelin (ET) binding sites in male Wistar rat brains subjected to a 20-min four-vessel occlusion (transient forebrain ischemia model) which induces hippocampal neuron death, and in human brains with Alzheimer disease, were mapped by quantitative in vitro autoradiography employing [125I]ET-1 as a radioligand. Rats were decapitated 4 or 7 days after ischemia. In the rat brain, the [125I]ET-1 binding sites were remarkably increased in the hippocampal CA1 and dentate gyrus, ventral thalamic nucleus, and cortical vessels 4 and 7 days after ischemia, when many reactive astroglia were observed. The [125I]ET-1 binding sites decreased in the cerebral cortex affected by Alzheimer disease. The binding was abolished by 1 microM unlabeled ET-1, ET-3, sarafotoxin S6b, and BQ788 (an ETB antagonist) but not by BQ123 (an ETA antagonist), suggesting that the [125I]ET-1 binding sites are as ETB receptors. The present findings raise the possibility that a glial ET system could be responsible for the occurrence of ischemic neuron cell death.
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PMID:Endothelin receptors in ischemic rat brain and Alzheimer brain. 858 5

The cytokine interleukin (IL)-6 has recently been demonstrated to play a role in the pathology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The mechanisms leading to increased IL-6 levels in brains of AD patients are still unknown. Because in experimental animals ischemia increases both the levels of cytokines and the extracellular concentrations of adenosine in the brain, we hypothesized that these two phenomena may be functionally connected and that adenosine might increase IL-6 gene expression in the brain. Here we show that the mixed A1 and A2 agonist 5'-(N-ethylcarboxamido) adenosine (NECA) induces an increase in IL-6 mRNA levels and protein synthesis in the human astrocytoma cell line U373 MG. The A1-specific agonists R-phenylisopropyladenosine and cyclopentyladenosine are much less potent, and the A2a-specific agonist CGS-21860 shows only marginal effects. Increased levels of mRNA are already found within 30 min after NECA treatment. The A2a-selective antagonists 8-(3-chlorostyryl) caffeine and KF17837 [(E)-8-(3,4-dimethoxystyryl)-1,3-dipropyl-7-methylxanthine] , which have also some antagonistic properties at A2b receptors, and the nonspecific adenosine antagonist 8-phenyltheophylline were equipotent at inhibiting the NECA-induced increase in IL-6 protein synthesis, whereas the specific A1 antagonist 8-cyclopentyl-1,3 dipropylxanthine is much less potent. The results indicate that adenosine A2b receptors participate in the regulation of the IL-6 gene in astrocytoma cells.
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PMID:Adenosine A2b receptors mediate an increase in interleukin (IL)-6 mRNA and IL-6 protein synthesis in human astroglioma cells. 862 94

Enhancing the availability of endogenous acetylcholine by inhibition of cholinesterase with physostigmine, eptastigmine or soman at sub-toxic doses increases cerebral blood flow (CBF) and the response of this variable to changes in PaCO2. These effects are not correlated with metabolic activation, suggesting that the function of the cholinergic vasodilation is not merely to supply metabolic substrates. Since choline (Ch) can exchange between blood and the brain extracellular milieu the stage is set for possible feedback interactions between ACh synthesis and CBF. A negative feedback of CBF on ACh synthesis under conditions of a negative arteriovenous (A-V) difference for Ch across cerebral capillaries may contribute to stabilize GBF in ischemia. Eptastigmine and physostigmine significantly improve perfusion in experimental models of focal cerebral ischemia and traumatic brain injury respectively. During the short periods of time in which the A-V difference for Ch across the brain is positive, a positive feedback between cerebral free Ch and CBF may enhance the ability of the brain to recover Ch from the circulation for synthesis of membrane phospholipids. A loss of cholinergic cerebrovascular control may thus impair the survival of all cells within the CNS and contribute to the pathophysiology of dementia. Perhaps the view that the loss of cholinergic cells is the end point of Alzheimer's dementia could be modified to state that a cholinergic deficit may be the starting point of a decline in cerebral phospholipid turnover and cell membrane renewal that could lead to a generalized deterioration of cerebral function.
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PMID:Cholinergic control of cerebral blood flow in stroke, trauma and aging. 863 31


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