Hippocampal neurodegeneration and rhythms mirror each other during acute spinal cord injury in male rats.

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI), triggers neurodegenerative changes in the spinal cord, and simultaneously alters oscillatory manifestations of motor cortex. However, these disturbances may not be limited to motor areas and other parts such as hippocampus, which is vital in the neurogenesis and cognitive function, may be affected in the neurogenic and oscillatory manners. Addressing this remarkable complication of SCI, we evaluated the hippocampal neurogenesis and rhythms through acute phase of SCI. In the present study, we used 40 male rats (Sham.W1 = 10, SCI.W1 = 10, Sham.W2 = 10, SCI.W2 = 10), and findings revealed that contusive SCI declines hippocampal rhythms (Delta, Theta, Beta, Gamma) power and max-frequency. Also, there was a significant decrease in the DCX + and BrdU + cells of the dentate gyrus; correlated significantly with rhythms power decline. Considering the TUNEL assay analysis, there were significantly greater apoptotic cells, in the CA1, CA3, and DG regions of injured animals. Furthermore, according to the western blotting analysis, the expression of receptors (NMDA, GABAA, Muscarinic1), which are essential in the neurogenesis and generation of rhythms significantly attenuated following SCI. Our study demonstrated that acute SCI, alters the power and max-frequency of hippocampal rhythms parallel with changes in the hippocampal neurogenesis, apoptosis, and receptors expression.

Dual-phase 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT may increase the rate of detected lesions in prostate cancer patients.

BACKGROUND: This study was conducted to compare the early static (3-6 min post-injection (p.i.)) and standard whole body (1 h, p.i.) 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT imaging for detection of lesions in prostate cancer (PC) patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study, PC patients suspected of recurrence underwent 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT. Early static images were acquired from the pelvis and the lower abdomen 3-5 minutes after radiotracer injection and, a routine whole body scan was performed from the skull to the mid-thigh 1 h after injection. Quantitative analysis (SUVmax) was evaluated in suspicious lesions. RESULTS: Of 19 evaluated PC patients with a median age of 72 ± 1.66 years (range: 55-85 years) and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of 1.72 ± 6.11 ng/ml (range: 0.1-100 ng/ml) (median ± SE), 16 showed positive in the whole body PET/CT. All of the patients with positive whole body scans due to pelvic involvement had positive early scan results. Totally, 22 lesions were detected in both early and delay scans in the pelvic which 16 were related to prostate involvement, 4 were related to lymph node involvement, and 2 were related to bone involvement. Moreover, in addition to the mentioned 22 lesions, early PET imaging successfully detected local recurrence in a patient who was negative on WB PET/ CT; this lesion was masked in the delay scan due to bladder activity. The median SUVmax values of the early and delay scans were 3.69 ± 1.07 (median ± SE) (range: 1.2-14.5) and 5.85 ± 1.69 (range: 3.1-23.4), respectively. (p = 0.005). CONCLUSION: Early static 68Ga-PSMA-11 PET/CT imaging might discriminate metastases from urinary bladder activity. Therefore, early static imaging in combination with whole body 60-min p.i. imaging can improve the detection of local involvement pelvic disease.

Cerebrolysin attenuates ethanol-induced spatial memory impairments through inhibition of hippocampal oxidative stress and apoptotic cell death in rats.

The present study investigates the potential neuroprotective effect of cerebrolysin (CBL), a combination of neurotrophic factors, on the cognitive and biochemical alterations induced by chronic ethanol administration in rats. The animals were divided into five groups as follows: control; ethanol (4 g/kg, for 30 days) plus normal saline (Ethanol + NS); ethanol plus CBL 1 mL/kg (Ethanol + CBL 1), ethanol plus CBL 2.5 mL/kg (Ethanol + CBL 2.5); and ethanol plus CBL 5 mL/kg (Ethanol + CBL 5). The Morris water maze (MWM) test was performed to assess cognitive impairment. The status of the lipid peroxidation marker MDA, antioxidant capacity, as well as alterations of the apoptotic factors such as Bcl-2, BAX, and cleaved caspase-9 and -3, were evaluated in the hippocampus. The results showed that CBL treatment not only normalized the increased MDA levels in the alcoholic rats and enhanced antioxidant defense, but also reduced the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and cleaved caspase-9 and -3 in the hippocampus. These results were parallel with improvement in spatial memory performance in the MWM test. The findings of the present study provide evidence for the promising therapeutic effect of CBL in chronic ethanol consumption through counteracting oxidative stress and apoptosis markers.

Stroke subtypes, risk factors and mortality rate in northwest of Iran.

Background: Stroke is the second most common cause of death and first cause of disability in adults in the world. About 80% of all stroke deaths occur in developing countries. So far, the data on stroke epidemiology have been limited in Iran. Therefore, this study was focused on stroke demographic data, risk factors, types and mortality. Methods: A retrospective study was done in two university tertiary referral hospitals in Tabriz, northwest of Iran, from March 2008 to April 2013. Patients diagnosed with stroke were enrolled in the study. Demographic data, stroke subtypes, duration of hospitalization, stroke risk factors and hospital mortality rate were recorded for all the patients. Results: A total number of 5355 patients were evaluated in the present study. Mean age of the patients was 67.5 ± 13.8 years, and 50.6% were men. Final diagnosis of ischemic stroke was made in 76.5% of the patients, intra-cerebral hemorrhage (ICH) with or without intra-ventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in 14.3% and subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in 9.2%. Stroke risk factors among the patients were hypertension in 68.8% of the patients, diabetes mellitus (DM) in 23.9%, smoking in 12.6% and ischemic heart diseases (IHD) in 17.1%. Mean hospital stay was 17.3 days. Overall, the in-hospital mortality was 20.5%. Conclusion: Compared to other studies, duration of hospital stay was longer and mortality rate was higher in this study. Hypertension was the most common risk factor and cardiac risk factors and DM had relatively lower rate in comparison to other studies. Because of insufficient data on the epidemiology, patterns, and risk factors of stroke in Iran, there is a necessity to develop and implement a national registry system.