Chronic stress induced disruption of the peri-infarct neurovascular unit following experimentally induced photothrombotic stroke.

ABSTRACT: How stress influences brain repair is an issue of considerable importance, as patients recovering from stroke are known to experience high and often unremitting levels of stress post-event. In the current study, we investigated how chronic stress modified the key cellular components of the neurovascular unit. Using an experimental model of focal cortical ischemia in male C57BL/6 mice, we examined how exposure to a persistently aversive environment, induced by the application of chronic restraint stress, altered the cortical remodeling post-stroke. We focused on systematically investigating changes in the key components of the neurovascular unit (i.e. neurons, microglia, astrocytes, and blood vessels) within the peri-infarct territories using both immunohistochemistry and Western blotting.

SUBMITTER: Zhao Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5718325 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature