Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF NEUROLOGY
Volume 20, Issue 3, Pages 473-479Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-1331.2012.03877.x
Keywords
cerebral infarct; stem cell therapy; striatum; stroke; subventricular zone
Categories
Funding
- Swedish Research Council
- Swedish Government Initiative for Strategic Research Areas (StemTherapy)
- Swedish Brain Foundation
- Promobilia Foundation
- King Gustaf V's and Queen Victoria's Foundation
- Swedish Stroke Association
- Southern Swedish Healthcare Region
- Foundation of Medical Imaging in the Memory of Erik Lysholm
- Rut and Erik Hardebo's Donation Fund
- Elsa Schmitz' Foundation
- Medical Faculty of Lund University
- Skane University Hospital
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Background and purpose: Clinical stroke trials with stem cell-based approaches aiming for trophic actions, modulation of inflammation and neuroprotection are ongoing. However, experimental studies also suggest that neuronal replacement by grafted neural stem cells (NSCs) and possibly by endogenous NSCs from the subventricular zone (SVZ) may restore function in the stroke-damaged striatum. To evaluate the potential clinical impact of these findings, we analyzed the spatial relationship of infarcts to the SVZ and the proportion of individuals with striatal lesions in a consecutive series of ischaemic stroke patients. Methods: Patients aged 20-75 years with first-ever ischaemic stroke underwent DW-MRI of the brain within 4 days after stroke onset. We analyzed location, size, number of acute focal ischaemic abnormalities and their spatial relationship to the SVZ. Stroke severity was assessed using NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS). Results: Of 108 included patients, the distance from the nearest margin of the infarct(s) to the SVZ was <= 2 mm in 51/102 patients with visible ischaemic lesions on DW-MRI. Twenty-four patients had involvement of striatum. Eight of these had predominantly striatal lesions, that is >50% of the total ischaemic lesion volume was located in caudate nucleus and/or putamen. These 8 patients had a median NIHSS of 3. Conclusions: Many stroke patients have infarcts located close to the SVZ, providing some supportive evidence that optimized endogenous neurogenesis may have therapeutic potential. However, predominantly striatal infarcts are rare and tend to give mild neurological deficits, indicating that striatum should not be the primary target for neuronal replacement efforts in humans.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available