Clinical neurosurgery
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Clinical neurosurgery · Jan 2005
Synthes Award for Resident Research on Spinal Cord and Spinal Column Injury: granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) prevents apoptosis and improves functional outcome in experimental spinal cord contusion injury.
Granulocyte macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a potent hematopoietic cytokine, which stimulates stem cell proliferation in the bone marrow and inhibits apoptotic cell death in leukocytes. However, the effects of GM-CSF in the central nervous system are still unclear. The present study was undertaken to determine if GM-CSF can rescue neuronal cells from apoptosis and improve neurologic function in a spinal cord injury (SCI) model. ⋯ Treatment of SCI with GM-CSF showed some beneficial effects. Neuronal protection against apoptosis is viewed as a likely mechanism underlying the therapeutic effect of GM-CSF in SCI.
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Clinical neurosurgery · Jan 2005
Synthes Award for Resident Research on Brain and Craniofacial Injury: normoxic ventilatory resuscitation after controlled cortical impact reduces peroxynitrite-mediated protein nitration in the hippocampus.
Resuscitation with 100% ventilatory oxygen is routinely initiated after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Despite the objective to improve oxygenation of the injured brain, there are concerns about the increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can lead to further neuronal damage. 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT), the product of peroxynitrite-meditated tyrosine residue nitration, has been used as a marker for ROS-induced oxidative damage to proteins. We hypothesized that posttraumatic resuscitation with hyperoxic ventilation with a fraction of inspired oxygen (Fio2, 100%) results in increased ROS-induced damage to proteins compared with resuscitation with normoxic ventilation or room air (Fio2, 21%). ⋯ There was no significant difference in staining between the injured normoxic group and the sham-operated groups. In the delayed analysis of neuronal survival, although neuronal counts were reduced in the hippocampus on the injured side in both injured groups, there was no significant difference between hyperoxic and normoxic groups. Similarly, abnormal cell counts were not significantly different between groups.