Neuronal–glial alterations in non-primary motor areas in chronic subcortical stroke

Massive amounts of big words with zero understanding how this is going to help recovery. Useless.

  Neuronal–glial alterations in non-primary motor areas in chronic subcortical stroke

 Carmen M. Cirstea a,c,d,*,
Randolph J. Nudo b,e,
Sorin C. Craciunas a,1,
Elena A. Popescu a,
In-Young Choi a,d,
Phil Lee a,e,
Hung-Wen Yeh f,
Cary R. Savage g, and
William M. Brooks a,d
a Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA
b Landon Center on Aging, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA
c Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Kansas MedicalCenter, USA
d Department of Neurology, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA
e Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA
f Department of Biostatistics, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA
g Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Kansas Medical Center, USA

Abstract

Whether functional changes of the non-primary motor areas, e.g., dorsal premotor (PMd) and supplementary motor (SMA) areas, after stroke, reflect reorganization phenomena or recruitment of a pre-existing motor network remains to be clarified. We hypothesized that cellular changes in these areas would be consistent with their involvement in post-stroke reorganization. Specifically,we expected that neuronal and glial compartments would be altered in radiologically normal-appearing, i.e., spared, PMd and SMA in patients with arm paresis. Twenty survivors of a single ischemic subcortical stroke and 16 age-matched healthy controls were included. At more than six months after stroke, metabolites related to neuronal and glial compartments: N-acetylaspartate,
myo
-inositol, and glutamate/glutamine, were quantified by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy in PMd and SMA in both injured (ipsilesional) and un-injured (contralesional)hemispheres. Correlations between metabolites were also calculated. Finally, relationships between metabolite concentrations and arm motor impairment (total and proximal Fugl-Meyer Upper Extremity, FMUE, scores) were analyzed. Compared to controls, stroke survivors showed significantly higher ipsilesional PMd
myo-inositol and lower SMA N-acetylaspartate.Significantly lower metabolite correlations were found between ipsilesional and contralesionalSMA. Ipsilesional N-acetylaspartate was significantly related to proximal FMUE scores. This study provides evidence of abnormalities in metabolites, specific to neuronal and glial compartments, across spared non-primary motor areas. Ipsilesional alterations were related to proximal arm motor impairment. Our results suggest the involvement of these areas in post stroke reorganization.

Corresponding author at:
 Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, University of Kansas Medical Center, 3901 Rainbow Blvd, Mail Stop 1052,Kansas City, KS 66160, USA. Fax: +1 913 588 9071. ccirstea@kumc.edu (C.M. Cirstea)..1Present address: Neurosurgery Department IV, Bagdasar-Arseni Hospital, Romania.
NIH Public Access
Author Manuscript
Brain Res
. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2013 April 15.
Published in final edited form as:
Brain Res
. 2012 June 29; 1463: 75–84. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2012.04.052.