Peripheral, but not central, IGF-1 treatment attenuates stroke-induced cognitive impairment in middle-aged female Sprague Dawley rats: The gut as a therapeutic target.

Stroke results in immediate sensory or motor disability and increases the risk for long term cognitive-affective impairments. Thus, therapies are urgently needed to improve quality of life for stroke survivors, especially women who are at a greater risk for severe stroke after menopause. Most current research on stroke therapies target the central nervous system; however, stroke also impacts peripheral organ systems.

Prenatal alcohol alters inflammatory signatures in enteric portal tissues following adult-onset cerebrovascular ischemic stroke.

Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) impairs recovery from cerebrovascular ischemic stroke in adult rodents. Since the gut becomes dysbiotic following stroke, we assessed links between PAE and enteric portal inflammation. Adult control and PAE rat offspring received a unilateral endothelin-1-induced occlusion of the middle cerebral artery.

Sex differences in cognitive impairment after focal ischemia in middle-aged rats and the effect of iv miR-20a-3p treatment.

Stroke is a major cause of death and disability worldwide and is also a leading cause of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, with older women experiencing accelerated decline. Our previous studies show that intravenous (iv) injections of miR-20a-3p, a small noncoding RNA (miRNA) delivered after stroke improves acute stroke outcomes in middle-aged male and female rats. The present study tested whether mir-20a-3p treatment would also ameliorate stroke-induced cognitive decline in the chronic phase.

Intestinal epithelial stem cell transplants as a novel therapy for cerebrovascular stroke.

Almost 2/3 of stroke survivors exhibit vascular cognitive impairment and a third of stroke patients will develop dementia 1-3 years after stroke. These dire consequences underscore the need for effective stroke therapies. In addition to its damaging effects on the brain, stroke rapidly dysregulates the intestinal epithelium, resulting in elevated blood levels of inflammatory cytokines and toxic gut metabolites due to a 'leaky' gut.