Deans' stroke musings: A Novel Look at Astrocytes Aquaporins, Ionic Homeostasis, and the Role of the Microenvironment for Regeneration in the CNS

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

A Novel Look at Astrocytes Aquaporins, Ionic Homeostasis, and the Role of the Microenvironment for Regeneration in the CNS

Astrocytes are important in our recovery, ask you doctor how to help them along.
http://nro.sagepub.com/content/19/2/195.abstract?etoc

Abstract

Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) water channels are located at the basolateral membrane domain of many epithelial cells involved in ion transport and secretion. These epithelial cells separate fluid compartments by forming apical tight junctions. In the brain, AQP4 is located on astrocytes in a polarized distribution: At the border to blood vessels or the pial surface, its density is very high. During ontogeny and phylogeny, astroglial cells go through a stage of expressing tight junctions, separating fluid compartments differently than in adult mammals. In adult mammals, this barrier is formed by arachnoid, choroid plexus, and endothelial cells. The ontogenetic and phylogenetic barrier transition from glial to endothelial cells correlates with the regenerative capacity of neuronal structures: Glial cells forming tight junctions, and expressing no or unpolarized AQP4 are found in the fish optic nerve and the olfactory nerve in mammals both known for their regenerative ability. It is hypothesized that highly polarized AQP4 expression and the lack of tight junctions on astrocytes increase ionic homeostasis, thus improving neuronal performance possibly at the expense of restraining neurogenesis and regeneration.