- •Abstract
- •Chapter 1 – Introduction
- •Chapter 2 - Methods
- •Chapter 3 - What is stroke
- •Figure 1 Post stroke disabilities (Genentech., 2014)
- •Ischaemic stroke happens when a blockage in the artery supplying the brain occurs, leading to hypoxia. Causes of ischaemic stroke include:
- •Figure 6 Mechanism of t-pa action, (Genentech, 2014)
- •Figure 4 Molecular process of neuronal ischaemia. (Colledge, Walker and Ralston., 2010, p. 1182)
- •Available treatments for stroke
- •Figure 5 The mechanism of aspirin inhibiting ptgs enzyme (Novara., 2013)
- •Embryonic stem cells
- •Figure 8 Formation of neurons from a blastocyst (Lindvall et al., 2004)
- •Adult stem cells
- •Figure 10 Reprogramming adult stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells usig Oct4, Klf4, Sox2 and c-Myc genes (Meregalli et al., 2011).
- •Mesenchymal stem cells
- •MsCs for treatment of stroke
- •Chapter 5 - Migratory mechanisms of msCs
- •Chapter 6 - Discussion
Chapter 2 - Methods
A
Table 1 Key words and phrases used to find relevant information
research structure plan was created when starting the project. Because stem cell research is a relatively new area, many relevant papers were not available for access and no books on this subject were available at Stratford library. The research was therefore conducted by using key words (Table 1) and utilizing available resources, such as: search engines (google and google scholar), printed journals, library facilities (athens), medical and human physiology books (Davidson's Principles and Practice of Medicine), clinical trial websites (http://www.controlled-trial.com), society websites (http://www.stroke.org.uk/research), company websites (www.genetech.co.in) and online journal databases (Science Direct, Pubmed, Wiley Online Library, Science daily, MedlinePlus).
Ischaemic and haemorrhagic stroke, definition and causes |
MSC infusion options (intra-arterial, intra-cerebral, intra-venous) |
Risk factors of stroke |
MSC culturing |
Disabilities after stroke |
MSC induced carcinogenesis |
Molecular mechanisms of stroke |
MSC modification to increase homing |
Currently available treatments of stroke |
MSC migratory mechanisms (active vs passive homing) |
Anti-platelet medication (Aspirin) |
Benefits of MSCs in the ischaemic brain (neurorestorative and neuroprotective effects) |
Thrombolytics (Alteplase) |
Cytokine/integrin receptor expression on MSCs (CXCR4, CD44) |
Thrombectomy (proximal and distal) |
Problems associated with MSC therapy |
Definition and types of stem cells (embryonic, adult, induced pluripotent stem cells) |
Inflammatory signals produced by damaged tissues, responsible for MSC attraction |
Potential therapeutic applications of stem cells |
Clinical trials in patients who received MSCs after ischaemic stroke |
Mesenchymal stem cells, definition, phenotypes, isolation sites, differentiation capacity. |
Trophic (anti-scarring, angiogenic, mitogenic, anti-apoptotic) and anti-inflammatory molecules produced by MSCs |
Chapter 3 - What is stroke
Stroke is the result of obstruction of the cerebral blood vessels and deprivation of oxygen, glucose and other essential nutrients to the supplied vascular territory, which leads to cell death, through liquefactive necrosis (Colledge et al., 2010) .This is because brain tissue functioning stops, if deprivation of oxygen lasts longer than 60 to 90 seconds. If blood circulation is not re-established irreversible damage will be done to the affected area of the brain, causing it to lose function. This can lead to: visual impairment, aphasia (a communication disorder, which makes writing, reading and speaking difficult, but does not affect the patients intelligence) inability to comprehend speech, hemiparesis (movement impairment, resulting in weakness on one side of the body), inability to move one or multiple limbs and other physical, cognitive and emotional problems resulting in acquired disability (Figure 1).