Objective
Stroke is one of the major causes of death in humans. Up until now stroke-caused alterations in human brain could be studied only in post-mortem tissue. Such an approach has the disadvantage that the data obtained might not always reflect the pathological status in the brain during the incidence of stroke. It has been established that some neurons are more prone to stroke-caused damage than others. In order to evaluate the underlying molecular mechanisms of resistance biological, cellular and molecular studies with an appropriate animal model will be started. Several animal models have been used in these fields but many of them have strong limitations, e.g. the acute development of the stroke without the concomitant establishment of compensatory mechanisms which probably happens in human pathology. To overcome this problem a strain of rat has been developed which naturally develops hypertension and stroke.
The final goals of the project are to establish novel markers for neuronal cell death (apoptosis) and to develop novel strategies to reduce ischemic neuronal damage in stroke patients. The project includes both basic studies and therapy-related studies performed on animal models, cultured neurons, and/or stroke patients (autopsy material).
The specific tasks and aims are: to study the expression of reliable markers for apoptosis in brain areas which are particularly sensitive to ischemia and in areas which are poorly sensitive to ischemia; to investigate the hypoxic neuronal injury at the molecular level and to evaluate the molecular mechanisms causing selective neuronal damage or resistance of other brain areas; and to study the neuroprotective effect of different treatments.
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
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55099 Mainz
Germany