scholarly journals Alterations of the pulmonary immunity are independent of spontaneous pneumonia in an experimental model of ischemic stroke

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Breanne Y. Farris ◽  
Kelly L. Monaghan ◽  
Courtney D. Amend ◽  
Wen Zheng ◽  
Heng Hu ◽  
...  

AbstractStroke-associated pneumonia (SAP) is a major cause of mortality in patients who have suffered from severe ischemic stroke. Although multi-factorial in nature, stroke-induced immunosuppression plays a key role in the development of SAP. Previous studies of focal ischemic stroke induction, using a murine model of transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) have shown that severe brain damage results in massive apoptosis and functional defects of lymphocytes in the spleen, thymus, and peripheral blood. However, how immune alternations in remote tissues lead to a greater susceptibility to lung infections is not well-understood. Importantly, how ischemic stroke alters immune-cell fates, and the expression of cytokines and chemokines in the lungs that directly impact pulmonary immunity, has not been characterized. We report here that ischemic stroke increases the percentage of alveolar macrophages, neutrophils, and CD11b+ dendritic cells (DCs), but reduces the percentage of CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, B cells, natural killer (NK) cells, and eosinophils in the lungs. The depletion of immune cells in the lungs is not caused by apoptosis, cell infiltration to the brain, or spontaneous pneumonia following ischemic stroke as previously described, but correlates with a significant reduction in the levels of multiple chemokines in the lungs, including: CCL3, CCL4, CCL5, CCL17, CCL20, CCL22, CXCL5, CXCL9, and CXCL10. These findings suggest that ischemic stroke negatively impacts pulmonary immunity to become more susceptible for SAP development. Further investigation into the mechanisms that control pulmonary immune alternations following ischemic stroke may identify novel diagnostic or therapeutic targets for SAP.

2013 ◽  
Vol 113 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Akhmedov ◽  
Remo D Spescha ◽  
Francesco Paneni ◽  
Giovani G Camici ◽  
Thomas F Luescher

Background— Stroke is one of the most common causes of death and long term disability worldwide primarily affecting the elderly population. Lectin-like oxidized LDL receptor 1 (LOX-1) is the receptor for oxidized LDL identified in endothelial cells. Binding of OxLDL to LOX-1 induces several cellular events in endothelial cells, such as activation of transcription factor NF-kB, upregulation of MCP-1, and reduction in intracellular NO. Accumulating evidence suggests that LOX-1 is involved in endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, atherogenesis, myocardial infarction, and intimal thickening after balloon catheter injury. Interestingly, a recent study demonstrated that acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), which could prevent ischemic stroke, inhibited Ox-LDL-mediated LOX-1 expression in human coronary endothelial cells. The expression of LOX-1 was increased at a transient ischemic core site in the rat middle cerebral artery occlusion model. These data suggest that LOX-1 expression induces atherosclerosis in the brain and is the precipitating cause of ischemic stroke. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to investigate the role of endothelial LOX-1 in stroke using experimental mouse model. Methods and Results— 12-week-old male LOX-1TG generated recently in our group and wild-type (WT) mice were applied for a transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model to induce ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) brain injury. LOX-1TG mice developed 24h post-MCAO significantly larger infarcts in the brain compared to WT (81.51±8.84 vs. 46.41±10.13, n=7, p < 0.05) as assessed morphologically using Triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining. Moreover, LOX-1TG showed higher neurological deficit in RotaRod (35.57±8.92 vs. 66.14±10.63, n=7, p < 0.05) and Bederson tests (2.22±0.14 vs. 1.25±0.30, n=9-12, p < 0.05) - two experimental physiological tests for neurological function. Conclusions— Thus, our data suggest that LOX-1 plays a critical role in the ischemic stroke when expressed at unphysiological levels. Such LOX-1 -associated phenotype could be due to the endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, LOX-1 may represent novel therapeutic targets for preventing ischemic stroke.


Stroke ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shirley Marino Lee ◽  
Jacob Hudobenko ◽  
Juneyoung Lee ◽  
Louise McCullough ◽  
Anjali Chauhan

Introduction: With aging, microglia acquire a dysfunctional phenotype characterized by dystrophic morphology, impaired phagocytosis, reduced motility, and an exaggerated response to injury. Microglia become pathologically activated with aging and play a detrimental role in age-associated cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases. Older mice exhibit a differential response to stroke and have worse outcomes despite smaller infarcts compared to young mice. Microglia from aged mice produce higher levels of reactive oxidative species and have an exaggerated inflammatory response after ischemic stroke. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that ablation of microglia would reduce the exaggerated neuroinflammatory responses in aged mice and loss of microglia would improve early recovery after ischemic stroke. Aged (18-19 months) male mice were fed a control chow diet (CD) or PLX5622 chow diet (PLXD) for 21 days. On day 22, 60-minute middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo) or sham surgery was performed. Twenty-four hours after MCAo, neurological deficit scores (NDS) and immunohistochemistry assessments, as well as flow cytometry, were performed. Results: There was a significant reduction in Iba1 + cells in striatum and cortex of the aged mice with PLX treatment: day 7 (p<0.05), day 14 (p<0.001), and day 21 (p<0.001) vs day 0. Twenty-four hours after MCAo, the NDS were not different between CD (3.0±0.18) and PLXD (2.92±0.21). However, an increase in infarct size was seen in the aged PLXD group compared to the aged CD group (p<0.05). After MCAo, there was an increase in infiltrating monocytes and neutrophils in both diet groups compared to their respective shams (p<0.05). However, an increase in infiltrating monocytes was observed in the PLXD MCAo vs. CD MCAo (p<0.0001) reflecting a differential monocyte response in animals without microglia. Additionally, a decrease in NeuN immunoreactivity was seen in the PLXD MCAo group compared to PLXD sham (p<0.01). GFAP + cells increased in PLXD sham group as compared to CD sham (p<0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that microglia are essential immune cells that surprisingly limit immune cell infiltration, decrease neuronal degeneration, and reduce neuroinflammation after ischemic stroke in aged mice.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoxue Wen ◽  
Hui Shen ◽  
Shuxian Huang ◽  
Liping Wang ◽  
Zongwei Li ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Clearance of damaged cells is beneficial for the functional recovery after brain injury. Phagocytosis of tissue and cell debris is an important function of microglia during the development and pathological diseases. However, which specific phagocytic receptor mediates microglial phagocytosis after ischemic stroke is obscure. Methods ICR mice (n=59) underwent 90 minutes transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. P2Y6R, Iba1, GFAP and Tuj-1 double immunostainings were performed to determine P2Y6 receptor location. MRS2578 was injected into mice to inhibit P2Y6 receptor activity. Iba1 and TUNEL staining were performed to examine microglia phagocytosis. Modified neurological severity scores and Grid walking test were used to evaluate the neurological function after ischemic stoke. The expression of IL-1 α, IL-1 β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, TGF-β and MPO was used to examine the inflammation response in the brain. Results The expression of P2Y6 receptor in microglia increased within three days after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Inhibition of microglial phagocytosis by the selective inhibitor MRS2578 enlarged the brain atrophy and edema volume after ischemic stroke, subsequently aggravated neurological function using modified neurological severity scores and Grid walking test. MRS2578 treatment had no effect on the expression of IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10, TNF-α, TGF-β and MPO after ischemic stroke, which suggested that it had no effect on the inflammation in the brain. Finally, we found that the expression of myosin light chain kinase decreased after microglial phagocytosis inhibition in ischemic mice, which suggested that myosin light chain kinase was involved in P2Y6 receptor mediated phagocytosis. Conclusion Our results indicated that the P2Y6 receptor mediated microglial phagocytosis played an important role during the acute stage of ischemic stroke, which was a potential target for ischemic stroke treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 10090-10121
Author(s):  
Yung-Kuan Chan ◽  
Chun-Fu Hong ◽  
Meng-Hsiun Tsai ◽  
Ya-Lan Chang ◽  
Ping-Hsuan Sun

Abstract Stroke is one of the leading causes of death as well as results in a massive economic burden for society. Stroke is a cerebrovascular disease mainly divided into two types: ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke, which, respectively, refer to the partial blockage and bleeding inside brain blood vessels. Both stroke types lead to nutrient and oxygen deprivation in the brain, which ultimately cause brain damage or death. This study focuses on ischemic stroke in rats with middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) as experimental subjects, and the volumes of infarct and atrophy are calculated based on the brain slice images of rat brains stained with 2,3,5-triphenyl tetrazolium chloride. In this study, a stroke rat brain infarct and atrophy volumes computation system (SRBIAVC system) is developed to segment the infarcts and atrophies from the rat brain slice images. Based on the segmentation results, the infarct and atrophy volumes of a rat brain can be computed. In this study, 168 images of brain slices cut from 28 rat brains with MCAO are used as the test samples. The experimental results show that the segmentation results obtained by the SRBIAVC system are close to those obtained by experts.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 6-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael K Schuhmann ◽  
Peter Kraft ◽  
Guido Stoll ◽  
Kristina Lorenz ◽  
Sven G Meuth ◽  
...  

While the detrimental role of non-regulatory T cells in ischemic stroke is meanwhile unequivocally recognized, there are controversies about the properties of regulatory T cells (Treg). The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of Treg by applying superagonistic anti-CD28 antibody expansion of Treg. Stroke outcome, thrombus formation, and brain-infiltrating cells were determined on day 1 after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion. Antibody-mediated expansion of Treg enhanced stroke size and worsened functional outcome. Mechanistically, Treg increased thrombus formation in the cerebral microvasculature. These findings confirm that Treg promote thrombo-inflammatory lesion growth during the acute stage of ischemic stroke.


2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (12) ◽  
pp. 2363-2374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Je Chen ◽  
Girija Raman ◽  
Silke Bodendiek ◽  
Martha E O'Donnell ◽  
Heike Wulff

Microglia and brain infiltrating macrophages significantly contribute to the secondary inflammatory damage in the wake of ischemic stroke. Here, we investigated whether inhibition of KCa3.1 (IKCa1/KCNN4), a calcium-activated K+ channel that is involved in microglia and macrophage activation and expression of which increases on microglia in the infarcted area, has beneficial effects in a rat model of ischemic stroke. Using an HPLC/MS assay, we first confirmed that our small molecule KCa3.1 blocker TRAM-34 effectively penetrates into the brain and achieves micromolar plasma and brain concentrations after intraperitoneal injection. Then, we subjected male Wistar rats to 90 minutes of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and administered either vehicle or TRAM-34 (10 or 40 mg/kg intraperitoneally twice daily) for 7 days starting 12 hours after reperfusion. Both compound doses reduced infarct area by ∼50% as determined by hematoxylin & eosin staining on day 7 and the higher dose also significantly improved neurological deficit. We further observed a significant reduction in ED1+-activated microglia and TUNEL-positive neurons as well as increases in NeuN+ neurons in the infarcted hemisphere. Our findings suggest that KCa3.1 blockade constitutes an attractive approach for the treatment of ischemic stroke because it is still effective when initiated 12 hours after the insult.


Stroke ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (Suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yao Yao ◽  
Abhijit Nirwane

Introduction: Controversial results exist on whether mural cells can differentiate into microglia-like cells after ischemic stroke. This discrepancy can be due to different experimental methods (immunostaining versus lineage tracing) and/or distinct transgenic animals (RGS5 GFP versus Tbx18-CreERT mice). Methods: To determinate whether mural cells are able to differentiate into microglia-like cells after ischemic stroke, we permanently labeled mural cells with tdTomato by crossing PDGFRβ-Cre and PDGFRβ-CreERT with Ai14 reporter mice. The resulting Ai14:PDGFRβ-Cre + and Ai14:PDGFRβ-CreERT + mice were subjected to 45 minutes of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) followed by reperfusion. At various time points after injury, the proliferation, apoptosis, and differentiation of PDGFRβ + cells were examined. Results: In both Ai14:PDGFRβ-Cre + and Ai14:PDGFRβ-CreERT + mice, we observed a substantial reduction of PDGFRβ + cells at day 2 after ischemic stroke and a subsequent repopulation (mainly due to proliferation) of PDGFRβ + cells at day 7 after ischemic stroke. We also showed that PDGFRβ + cells changed their morphology and differentiated into microglia-like cells at day 7 after injury, suggesting that PDGFRβ + cells can indeed differentiate into microglia-like cells after ischemic stroke. In addition, we noted that PDGFRβ also labeled Col1α1 + fibroblasts in the brain. Interestingly, high numbers of PDGFRβ + Col1α1 + cells were found in both Ai14:PDGFRβ-Cre + and Ai14:PDGFRβ-CreERT + mice at day 7 after ischemic injury. Conclusions: These results suggest that PDGFRβ is not an ideal marker for mural cells in pathological conditions that involve fibroblast activation. It remains unclear whether mural cells or fibroblasts differentiate into microglia-like cells after ischemic stroke. Future research should focus on answering this important question.


Neurosurgery ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pakawat Chongsathidkiet ◽  
Cosette Dechant ◽  
Daniel Wilkinson ◽  
Haichen Wang ◽  
Hanna Kemeny ◽  
...  

Abstract INTRODUCTION Sequestration of T-cells in bone marrow is a phenomenon recently characterized by our group in the setting of intracranial tumors. Our findings suggest that it is the intracranial location rather than tumor histology that elicits this phenotype. Sequestration is accompanied by lymphopenia and lymphoid organ contraction and is mediated by loss of the S1P1 receptor from the T-cell surface. We now reveal that this phenomenon is not only unique to brain tumors, but accompanies additional intracranial pathologies, most notably ischemic stroke. METHODS Blood, bone marrow, and spleens were collected from mice at day 2, 5, 7, or 14 following stroke via middle cerebral artery occlusion or sham surgery and analyzed by flow cytometry. T-cell S1P1 levels were assessed, along with T-cell counts in each compartment. S1P1 receptor stabilization was achieved with a knock-in model that inhibited receptor internalization. RESULTS Following stroke induction, T-cells accumulated in the bone marrow of injured mice. T-cell numbers peaked at day 7 poststroke before returning to normal levels by day 14. Bone marrow accumulation was accompanied by transient T-cell lymphopenia and splenic contraction following stroke. T-cells in the bone marrow yielded decreased levels of S1P1 on their surface. Conversely, mice with genetically stabilized T-cell S1P1 were protected against sequestration, lymphopenia, and splenic contraction following stroke. CONCLUSION Bone marrow T-cell sequestration occurs transiently following stroke and is mediated by the S1P-S1P1 axis. This may prove to be an adaptive mechanism to limit intracranial inflammation following an initial insult. Better understanding of this phenomenon may uncover a novel mechanism of immune privilege and allow for therapeutic modulation in the setting of stroke, brain tumor, and other types of intracranial injury.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (17) ◽  
pp. 6242
Author(s):  
Alexandra Lucaciu ◽  
Hannah Kuhn ◽  
Sandra Trautmann ◽  
Nerea Ferreirós ◽  
Helmuth Steinmetz ◽  
...  

Emerging evidence suggests a complex relationship between sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P) signaling and stroke. Here, we show the kinetics of S1P in the acute phase of ischemic stroke and highlight accompanying changes in immune cells and S1P receptors (S1PR). Using a C57BL/6 mouse model of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), we assessed S1P concentrations in the brain, plasma, and spleen. We found a steep S1P gradient from the spleen towards the brain. Results obtained by qPCR suggested that cells expressing the S1PR type 1 (S1P1+) were the predominant population deserting the spleen. Here, we report the cerebral recruitment of T helper (TH) and regulatory T (TREG) cells to the ipsilateral hemisphere, which was associated with differential regulation of cerebral S1PR expression patterns in the brain after MCAO. This study provides insight that the S1P-S1PR axis facilitates splenic T cell egress and is linked to the cerebral recruitment of S1PR+ TH and TREG cells. Further insights by which means the S1P-S1PR-axis orchestrates neuronal positioning may offer new therapeutic perspectives after ischemic stroke.


Author(s):  
Hai‐Han Yu ◽  
Xiao‐Tong Ma ◽  
Xue Ma ◽  
Man Chen ◽  
Yun‐Hui Chu ◽  
...  

Background Remote limb ischemic postconditioning (RLIPoC) has been demonstrated to protect against ischemic stroke. However, the underlying mechanisms of RLIPoC mediating cross‐organ protection remain to be fully elucidated. Methods and Results Ischemic stroke was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion for 60 minutes. RLIPoC was performed with 3 cycles of 10‐minute ischemia followed by 10‐minute reperfusion of the bilateral femoral arteries immediately after middle cerebral artery reperfusion. The percentage of regulatory T cells (Tregs) in the spleen, blood, and brain was detected using flow cytometry, and the number of Tregs in the ischemic hemisphere was counted using transgenic mice with an enhanced green fluorescent protein‐tagged Foxp3. Furthermore, the metabolic status was monitored dynamically using a multispectral optical imaging system. The Tregs were conditionally depleted in the depletion of Treg transgenic mice after the injection of the diphtheria toxin. The inflammatory response and neuronal apoptosis were investigated using immunofluorescent staining. Infarct volume and neurological deficits were evaluated using magnetic resonance imaging and the modified neurological severity score, respectively. The results showed that RLIPoC substantially reduced infarct volume, improved neurological function, and significantly increased Tregs in the spleen, blood, and ischemic hemisphere after middle cerebral artery occlusion. RLIPoC was followed by subsequent alteration in metabolites, such as flavin adenine dinucleotide and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrate, both in RLIPoC‐conducted local tissues and circulating blood. Furthermore, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrate can mimic RLIPoC in increasing Tregs. Conversely, the depletion of Tregs using depletion of Treg mice compromised the neuroprotective effects conferred by RLIPoC. Conclusions RLIPoC protects against ischemic brain injury, at least in part by activating and maintaining the Tregs through the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide/nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide hydrate pathway.


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