Researchers at the University of Freiburg have studied what happens immediately after a stroke in the stem cell niche known as the subventricular zone, using a mouse model. This revealed a mechanism that results in fewer newborn neurons from the stem cell niche surviving after stroke, thereby significantly limiting the neurogenic reaction of the subventricular zone to repair the brain. This fundamental understanding of the cellular processes in the brain could help in future to boost the body's own repair to replace lost neurons and ameliorate the consequences of stroke.
In healthy rodent brains, newborn neurons are constantly generated in the stem cell niche, known as the subventricular zone (SVZ). These cells might help to repair a brain that has been damaged by disorders of the central nervous system. After brain damage, the SVZ responds by forming newborn neurons that migrate towards the area of the lesion and could provide cell replacement there.
However, after a stroke, the functioning of the body's own repair system, the neurogenic response by the SVZ, is very limited. Researchers headed by Prof. Dr.
Christian Schachtrup, professor at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at the University of Freiburg, and his former doctoral student Dr. Suvra Nath, have studied the mechanisms underlying this limited response to repair the brain. Stroke negatively influences interaction of microglia and neurons The vasculature, that is, the system of blood vessels of the SVZ, becom.