Project description:Ischemic stroke is a major public health problem that is currently among the top leading causes of serious, long-term disability worldwide. The lack of effective treatment strategies prompted a search for new molecular targets for stroke prognosis and therapy. One of the epigenetic mechanisms controlling stroke progression and recovery involves signaling pathways mediated by short non-coding RNAs called microRNAs (miRNAs). Recent studies demonstrated stroke-specific changes in miRNA expression. The main goal of the present study was identify miRNAs mediating a communication between the brain and peripheral circulation in human stroke.
Project description:Treatment with activated mesenchymal stem cells increases long-term functional recovery following ischemic stroke via reduction of microglia activation and induction of oligodendrogenesis
Project description:Prolonged exposure to high temperatures may cause heat-related illnesses, such as cramps, syncope, exhaustion or even stroke in some individuals. Heat-related injuries remain a threat to the health and operational effectiveness of military personnel, athletes and the general public. Heat injury victims experience long-term complications that may include multi-system organ (liver, kidney, muscle) and neurologic damage, as well as reduced exercise capacity and heat intolerance. Findings from our laboratory using a developed heat stress model show that about 1/3 of mice are heat-intolerant and vulnerable to heat injury even though they are from the same mice litter. We examined if there is any genetic causation to this pattern of observation between the two groups of mice classified (Heat Intolerant and Heat Tolerant). We would like to screen Heat Tolerant and Heat Intolerant mice samples using microarray technology and examine their microRNA and mRNA for possible gene-specific differences between the two groups (6 mice per group). The results from this proposed animal research will help identify and select potential markers that can be used as a pre-screen to identify heat intolerance and assess heat injury recovery in humans. Heat-induced physiological and biochemical changes were assessed to determine heat tolerance levels in mice. We performed mRNA and microRNA expression profiling on mouse gastrocnemius muscle tissue samples to determine novel biological pathways associated with heat tolerance.
Project description:Prolonged exposure to high temperatures may cause heat-related illnesses, such as cramps, syncope, exhaustion or even stroke in some individuals. Heat-related injuries remain a threat to the health and operational effectiveness of military personnel, athletes and the general public. Heat injury victims experience long-term complications that may include multi-system organ (liver, kidney, muscle) and neurologic damage, as well as reduced exercise capacity and heat intolerance. Findings from our laboratory using a developed heat stress model show that about 1/3 of mice are heat-intolerant and vulnerable to heat injury even though they are from the same mice litter. We examined if there is any genetic causation to this pattern of observation between the two groups of mice classified (Heat Intolerant and Heat Tolerant). We would like to screen Heat Tolerant and Heat Intolerant mice samples using microarray technology and examine their microRNA and mRNA for possible gene-specific differences between the two groups (6 mice per group). The results from this proposed animal research will help identify and select potential markers that can be used as a pre-screen to identify heat intolerance and assess heat injury recovery in humans. Heat-induced physiological and biochemical changes were assessed to determine heat tolerance levels in mice. We performed mRNA and microRNA expression profiling on mouse gastrocnemius muscle tissue samples to determine novel biological pathways associated with heat tolerance.
Project description:Analysis of left venticular myocardium following morphine-induced sustained ligand activated preconditioning (SLP). Results provide insight into the molecular pathways affected by morphine-induced SLP in the pre- and post-ischemic heart. Total RNA obtained from isolated ventricular myocardium subjected to 5 days of morphine induced sustained ligand activated preconditioning (SLP) compared to placebo control ventricular myocardium, tissue collected pre- and post-ischemia (n=6/group).
Project description:Restricted access to human left ventricular myocardium is a significant limitation in the study of heart failure (HF). Here, we utilise a large human heart biobank of carefully procured, cryopreserved left ventricular myocardium to obtain direct molecular insights into ischaemic (ICM) and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), the most common causes of HF worldwide1. We performed unbiased, deep proteomic and metabolomic analyses of 51 left ventricular (LV) samples from 44 cryopreserved human ICM and DCM hearts, including age-matched, histopathologically normal, donor controls of both genders for comparison. For the first time, we report perturbed thyroid hormone signalling pathways in the myocardium of both types of HF, and unveil the interaction of gender with HF, including increased nitric oxide-related arginine metabolism in male hearts, and many gender-specific mitochondrial and X chromosome-linked protein and metabolite changes. We provide all raw data, in addition to an interactive online application, as a publicly-available resource.