ABSTRACT
Cerebral ischemia is a common neurodegenerative disease in which damage to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the main consequence. In cerebral ischemia, the level of miR-149-5p and tight junction proteins are decreased, while the level of Calpine is increased, finally leading to increased BBB permeability. This study investigated the effect of miR-149-5p mimic on the expression of Calpain, Occludin, and ZO-1 and the consequences of cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia model was performed via middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) method on female Wistar rats. Four groups of Wistar rats were studied: Sham, cerebral ischemia without treatment, Scramble miR, and miR-149-5p mimic treatment. Then, neurological defects and BBB permeability (via Evans blue staining), cerebral edema (cerebrospinal fluid percentage), and ZO-1, Occludin, and Calapin expression (by quantitative real time- PCR) were investigated. qRT-PCR results showed miR-149-5p expression decreases after cerebral ischemia induction. In addition, Occludin and ZO-1 expression significantly increased in miR-149-5p group. In contrast, Calapin expression, BBB permeability, brain water content and neurological defects were significantly decreased. It seems that the increased level of miR-149-5p exerts its protective effect on cerebral ischemia due to increasing of tight junction proteins.
ABSTRACT
Verbal fluency is one of the first and most important cognitive functions that deteriorate during the aging process. Verbal fluency is defined as the skill and speed of finding words and finding semantic and phonetic connections between words. One of the most important factors in verbal fluency is bilingualism. Therefore, the current study aimed to investigate the effect of bilingualism on the verbal fluency of the elderly in Iran. A total of 12 normal elderly bilingual (Arabic-Persian) speakers and 12 normal elderly monolingual (Persian) speakers participated in this comparative-analytical study. To assess verbal fluency, two semantic and phonetic fluency tasks were used. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests. The results obtained from the comparison of phonetic fluency and semantic fluency of native languages of the two groups showed a better performance of monolingual participants in semantic fluency and phonetic fluency tasks in Persian language compared to the Arabic bilingual elderly. No difference was observed in verbal fluency of Persian monolinguals and bilinguals. However, in bilingual elderly participants, faster retrieval was observed in Persian language than in Arabic. This can be considered in assessment and treatment measures for Arabic-Persian bilinguals.
