The Effects of Neck-Specific Training Versus Prescribed Physical Activity on Pain and Disability in Patients With Cervical Radiculopathy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: To compare the effects of a neck-specific training program to prescribed physical activity with both groups receiving a cognitive behavioral approach, on pain and disability in patients with cervical radiculopathy (CR).

Design: Parallel-group randomized clinical trial with follow-up at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months.

Setting: Recruitment and assessments of participants were performed at a university hospital.

Cell Fusion along the Anterior-Posterior Neuroaxis in Mice with Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis.

Background: It is well documented that bone marrow-derived cells can fuse with a diverse range of cells, including brain cells, under normal or pathological conditions. Inflammation leads to robust fusion of bone marrow-derived cells with Purkinje cells and the formation of binucleate heterokaryons in the cerebellum. Heterokaryons form through the fusion of two developmentally differential cells and as a result contain two distinct nuclei without subsequent nuclear or chromosome loss.

Secondary insults following traumatic brain injury enhance complement activation in the human brain and release of the tissue damage marker S100B.

Object: Complement activation has been suggested to play a role in the development of secondary injuries following traumatic brain injury (TBI). The present study was initiated in order to analyze complement activation in relation to the primary brain injury and to secondary insults, frequently occurring following TBI.

Methods: Twenty patients suffering from severe TBI (Glasgow coma score ≤ 8) were included in the study.

TLR activation induces TNF-alpha production from adult neural stem/progenitor cells.

Adult neural stem cells (NSCs) are believed to facilitate CNS repair and tissue regeneration. However, it is not yet clear how these cells are influenced when the cellular environment is modified during neurotrauma or neuroinflammatory conditions. In this study, we determine how different proinflammatory cytokines modulate the expression of TLR2 and TLR4 in NSCs and how these cells respond to TLR2 and TLR4 agonists.

Nitric oxide exposure diverts neural stem cell fate from neurogenesis towards astrogliogenesis.

Regeneration of cells in the central nervous system is a process that might be affected during neurological disease and trauma. Because nitric oxide (NO) and its derivatives are powerful mediators in the inflammatory cascade, we have investigated the effects of pathophysiological concentrations of NO on neurogenesis, gliogenesis, and the expression of proneural genes in primary adult neural stem cell cultures. After exposure to NO, neurogenesis was downregulated, and this corresponded to decreased expression of the proneural gene neurogenin-2 and beta-III-tubulin.