Grant: Operating Grant

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in industrialized countries. Unfortunately, at present, the clinical treatments remain poorly effective. There is increasing evidence that inflammation plays an important role in central nervous system (CNS) ischemia. Here, it is important to mention that inflammatory response after stroke occurs several hours after initial attack and may last for several weeks thus leaving enough time for therapeutic interventions. The aim of this project is to study the role of inflammation in ischemic brain injury and to develop novel therapeutic strategies by modulating inflammatory response to promote brain repair and recovery. To address these important issues we generated series of novel transgenic mouse models which allow us to visualize the processes of inflammation and brain repair. In these novel disease mouse models we can longitudinally study progression of brain injury after stroke and analyze the effects of novel pharmacological treatments from the brains of living animals using in vivo bioluminescence/biophotonic imaging. The in vivo results obtained in our preliminary studies suggest that inflammatory response after stroke lasts much longer than initially thought (several months after stroke) and therefore may represent a good therapeutic target to stimulate brain recovery.