scholarly journals Conditionally Immortalized, Multipotential and Multifunctional Neural Stem Cell Lines as an Approach to Clinical Transplantation

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Gray ◽  
G. Grigoryan ◽  
D. Virley ◽  
S. Patel ◽  
J. D. Sinden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cell Suspension ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Cholinergic System ◽  
Recovery Of Function ◽  
Fetal Brain ◽  
Nucleus Basalis ◽  
Ethanol Administration ◽  
Projection System

Experiments are described using rats with two kinds of brain damage and consequent cognitive deficit (in the Morris water maze, three-door runway, and radial maze): 1) ischemic damage to the CA1 hippocampal cell field after four-vessel occlusion (4VO), and 2) damage to the forebrain cholinergic projection system by local injection of excitotoxins to the nuclei of origin or prolonged ethanol administration. Cell suspension grafts derived from primary fetal brain tissue display a stringent requirement for homotypical cell replacement in the 4VO model: cells from the embryonic day (E)18–19 CA1 hippocampal subfield, but not from CA3 or dentate gyrus or from E16 basal forebrain (cholinergic rich) led to recovery of cognitive function. After damage to the cholinergic system, conversely, recovery of function was seen with cell suspension grafts from E16 basal forebrain or cholinergic-rich E14 ventral mesencephalon, but not with implants of hippocampal tissue. These two models therefore provided a test of multifunctionality for a clonal line of conditionally immortalized neural stem cells, MHP36, derived from the E14 “immortomouse” hippocampal anlage. Implanted above the damaged CA1 cell field in 4VO-treated adult rats, these cells (multipotential in vitro) migrated to the damaged area, reconstituted the gross morphology of the CA1 pyramidal layer, took up both neuronal and glial phenotypes, and gave rise to cognitive recovery. Similar recovery of function and restoration of species-typical morphology was observed when MHP36 cells were implanted into marmosets with excitotoxic CA1 damage. MHP36 implants led to recovery of cognitive function also in two experiments with rats with excitotoxic damage to the cholinergic system damage, either unilaterally in the nucleus basalis or bilaterally in both the nucleus basalis and the medial septal area. Thus, MHP36 cells are both multipotent (able to take up multiple cellular phenotypes) and multifunctional (able to repair diverse types of brain damage).

scholarly journals Atrophy of Basal Forebrain Initiates with Tau Pathology in Individuals at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 2083-2098
Author(s):  
Jose L Cantero ◽  
Mercedes Atienza ◽  
Carmen Lage ◽  
Laszlo Zaborszky ◽  
Eduard Vilaplana ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
At Risk ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Cholinergic Neurons ◽  
Nucleus Basalis ◽  
Tau Pathology ◽  
Projection System ◽  
Prodromal Ad

Abstract Evidence suggests that the basal forebrain (BF) cholinergic system degenerates early in the course of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), likely due to the vulnerability of BF cholinergic neurons to tau pathology. However, it remains unclear whether the presence of tauopathy is the only requirement for initiating the BF degeneration in asymptomatic subjects at risk for AD (AR-AD), and how BF structural deficits evolve from normal aging to preclinical and prodromal AD. Here, we provide human in vivo magnetic resonance imaging evidence supporting that abnormal cerebrospinal fluid levels of phosphorylated tau (T+) are selectively associated with bilateral volume loss of the nucleus basalis of Meynert (nbM, Ch4) in AR-AD individuals. Spreading of atrophy to medial septum and vertical limb of diagonal band Broca (Ch1–Ch2) occurred in both preclinical and prodromal AD. With the exception of A+, all groups revealed significant correlations between volume reduction of BF cholinergic compartments and atrophy of their innervated regions. Overall, these results support the central role played by tauopathy in instigating the nbM degeneration in AR-AD individuals and the necessary coexistence of both AD proteinopathies for spreading damage to larger BF territories, thus affecting the core of the BF cholinergic projection system.

Neural transplantation and recovery of cognitive function

1995 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Sinden ◽  
Helen Hodges ◽  
Jeffrey A. Gray
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Granule Cells ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Fetal Brain ◽  
Pyramidal Cells ◽  
Local Injection ◽  
Projection System ◽  
Ca1 Pyramidal Cells ◽  
Neural Transplants

AbstractCognitive deficits were produced in rats by different methods of damaging the brain: chronic ingestion of alcohol, causing widespread damage to diffuse cholinergic and aminergic projection systems; lesions (by local injection of the excitotoxins, ibotenate, quisqualate, and AMPA) of the nuclei of origin of the forebrain cholinergic projection system (FCPS), which innervates the neocortex and hippocampal formation; transient cerebral ischaemia, producing focal damage especially in the CA1 pyramidal cells of the dorsal hippocampus; and lesions (by local injection of the neurotoxin, colchicine) of the granule cells of the dentate gyrus. Following chronic alcohol or lesions of the FCPS, transplants of cholinergically rich fetal brain tissue into the terminal areas (neocortex and/or hippocampus) restored performance almost to control levels, with a time course consistent with growth of the transplants and integration with host tissue; transplants of cholinergically poor fetal tissue (hippocampus) were without effect, as were transplants of cholinergically rich tissue into the region containing the nuclei of origin of the FCPS. Grafts of primary cells enriched in glia and cultured neuroblastoma cells into the terminal areas of the FCPS were equally effective, suggesting that there are multiple mechanisms by which neural transplants can restore cognitive function following diffuse cholinergic damage. In contrast, after ischaemia- or neurotoxin-induced damage to CA1 or dentate granule cells respectively, cholinergically rich fetal transplants into the damaged hippocampal formation were ineffective in restoring performance. After ischaemic damage, however, performance was restored by suspension grafts of CA1 cells but not by transplants containing CA3 pyramidal cells or granule cells; and after colchicine damage it was restored by solid grafts containing granule but not CA1 pyramidal cells. Furthermore, electrophysiological evidence has demonstrated functional, graft type-specific host-graft functional neuronal connectivity. Thus, restoration of cognitive function by neural transplants is possible after damage to either diffuse (cholinergic) or point-to-point (intrahippocampal) forebrain systems, but the transplant must be appropriate to the damage to be repaired. Because the different types of brain damage studied provide analogues of human alcoholic dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and heart attack, these results are encouraging with regard to the eventual application of neural transplant surgery to the treatment of cognitive deficits in humans.

scholarly journals Basal forebrain volume reliably predicts the cortical spread of Alzheimer’s degeneration

Brain ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
pp. 993-1009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Fernández-Cabello ◽  
Martin Kronbichler ◽  
Koene R A Van Dijk ◽  
James A Goodman ◽  
R Nathan Spreng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Grey Matter ◽  
Amyloid Β ◽  
Predictive Modelling ◽  
Nucleus Basalis ◽  
Seed Region ◽  
Projection System

Abstract Alzheimer’s disease neurodegeneration is thought to spread across anatomically and functionally connected brain regions. However, the precise sequence of spread remains ambiguous. The prevailing model used to guide in vivo human neuroimaging and non-human animal research assumes that Alzheimer’s degeneration starts in the entorhinal cortices, before spreading to the temporoparietal cortex. Challenging this model, we previously provided evidence that in vivo markers of neurodegeneration within the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NbM), a subregion of the basal forebrain heavily populated by cortically projecting cholinergic neurons, precedes and predicts entorhinal degeneration. There have been few systematic attempts at directly comparing staging models using in vivo longitudinal biomarker data, and none to our knowledge testing if comparative evidence generalizes across independent samples. Here we addressed the sequence of pathological staging in Alzheimer’s disease using two independent samples of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (n1 = 284; n2 = 553) with harmonized CSF assays of amyloid-β and hyperphosphorylated tau (pTau), and longitudinal structural MRI data over 2 years. We derived measures of grey matter degeneration in a priori NbM and the entorhinal cortical regions of interest. To examine the spreading of degeneration, we used a predictive modelling strategy that tests whether baseline grey matter volume in a seed region accounts for longitudinal change in a target region. We demonstrated that predictive spread favoured the NbM→entorhinal over the entorhinal→NbM model. This evidence generalized across the independent samples. We also showed that CSF concentrations of pTau/amyloid-β moderated the observed predictive relationship, consistent with evidence in rodent models of an underlying trans-synaptic mechanism of pathophysiological spread. The moderating effect of CSF was robust to additional factors, including clinical diagnosis. We then applied our predictive modelling strategy to an exploratory whole-brain voxel-wise analysis to examine the spatial specificity of the NbM→entorhinal model. We found that smaller baseline NbM volumes predicted greater degeneration in localized regions of the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices. By contrast, smaller baseline entorhinal volumes predicted degeneration in the medial temporal cortex, recapitulating a prior influential staging model. Our findings suggest that degeneration of the basal forebrain cholinergic projection system is a robust and reliable upstream event of entorhinal and neocortical degeneration, calling into question a prevailing view of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.

scholarly journals Basal forebrain volume reliably predicts the cortical spread of Alzheimer’s degeneration

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Fernández-Cabello ◽  
Martin Kronbichler ◽  
Koene R. A. Van Dijk ◽  
James A. Goodman ◽  
R. Nathan Spreng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Gray Matter ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Predictive Modelling ◽  
Nucleus Basalis ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Seed Region ◽  
Projection System

AbstractAlzheimer’s disease neuropathology is thought to spread across anatomically and functionally connected brain regions. However, the precise sequence of spread remains ambiguous. The prevailing model posits that Alzheimer’s neurodegeneration starts in the entorhinal cortices, before spreading to temporoparietal cortex. Challenging this model, we previously provided evidence that degeneration within the nucleus basalis of Meynert (NbM), a subregion of the basal forebrain heavily populated by cortically projecting cholinergic neurons, precedes and predicts entorhinal degeneration (Schmitz and Spreng, 2016). There have been few systematic attempts at directly comparing staging models using in vivo longitudinal biomarker data, and determining if these comparisons generalize across independent samples. Here we addressed the sequence of pathological staging in Alzheimer’s disease using two independent samples of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (N1 = 284; N2 = 553) with harmonized CSF assays of amyloid (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau (pTau), and longitudinal structural MRI data over two years. We derived measures of gray matter degeneration in a priori NbM and the entorhinal regions of interest. To examine the spreading of degeneration, we used a predictive modelling strategy which tests whether baseline gray matter volume in a seed region accounts for longitudinal change in a target region. We demonstrated that predictive pathological spread favored the NbM→entorhinal over the entorhinal→NbM model. This evidence generalized across the independent samples (N1: r=0.20, p=0.03; N2: r=0.37, p<0.001). We also showed that CSF concentrations of pTau/Aβ moderated the observed predictive relationship, consistent with evidence in rodent models of an underlying trans-synaptic mechanism of pathophysiological spread (t826=2.55, p=0.01). The moderating effect of CSF was robust to additional factors, including clinical diagnosis (t826=1.65, p=0.49). We then applied our predictive modelling strategy to an exploratory whole-brain voxel-wise analysis to examine the spatial specificity of the NbM→entorhinal model. We found that smaller baseline NbM volumes predicted greater degeneration in localized regions of the entorhinal and perirhinal cortices. By contrast, smaller baseline entorhinal volumes predicted degeneration in the medial temporal cortex, recapitulating the prevailing staging model. Our findings suggest that degeneration of the basal forebrain cholinergic projection system is a robust and reliable upstream event of entorhinal and neocortical degeneration, calling into question the prevailing view of Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.

scholarly journals Functional connectivity of the nucleus basalis of Meynert in Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer’s disease

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Julia Schumacher ◽  
Alan J. Thomas ◽  
Luis R. Peraza ◽  
Michael Firbank ◽  
John T. O’Brien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Alzheimer's Disease ◽  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Lewy Body ◽  
Cholinergic System ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Lewy Body Dementia ◽  
Occipital Cortex ◽  
Nucleus Basalis ◽  
Nucleus Basalis Of Meynert

ABSTRACT Cholinergic deficits are a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Lewy body dementia (LBD). The nucleus basalis of Meynert (NBM) provides the major source of cortical cholinergic input; studying its functional connectivity might, therefore, provide a tool for probing the cholinergic system and its degeneration in neurodegenerative diseases. Forty-six LBD patients, 29 AD patients, and 31 healthy age-matched controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A seed-based analysis was applied with seeds in the left and right NBM to assess functional connectivity between the NBM and the rest of the brain. We found a shift from anticorrelation in controls to positive correlations in LBD between the right/left NBM and clusters in right/left occipital cortex. Our results indicate that there is an imbalance in functional connectivity between the NBM and primary visual areas in LBD, which provides new insights into alterations within a part of the corticopetal cholinergic system that go beyond structural changes.

scholarly journals Zingiber officinaleMitigates Brain Damage and Improves Memory Impairment in Focal Cerebral Ischemic Rat

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jintanaporn Wattanathorn ◽  
Jinatta Jittiwat ◽  
Terdthai Tongun ◽  
Supaporn Muchimapura ◽  
Kornkanok Ingkaninan
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Function ◽  
Cerebral Ischemia ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Focal Cerebral Ischemia ◽  
Infarct Volume ◽  
Neuroprotective Effect ◽  
Morris Water Maze Test ◽  
Brain Infarct ◽  
Ginger Rhizome ◽  
The Brain

Cerebral ischemia is known to produce brain damage and related behavioral deficits including memory. Recently, accumulating lines of evidence showed that dietary enrichment with nutritional antioxidants could reduce brain damage and improve cognitive function. In this study, possible protective effect ofZingiber officinale, a medicinal plant reputed for neuroprotective effect against oxidative stress-related brain damage, on brain damage and memory deficit induced by focal cerebral ischemia was elucidated. Male adult Wistar rats were administrated an alcoholic extract of ginger rhizome orally 14 days before and 21 days after the permanent occlusion of right middle cerebral artery (MCAO). Cognitive function assessment was performed at 7, 14, and 21 days after MCAO using the Morris water maze test. The brain infarct volume and density of neurons in hippocampus were also determined. Furthermore, the level of malondialdehyde (MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) in cerebral cortex, striatum, and hippocampus was also quantified at the end of experiment. The results showed that cognitive function and neurons density in hippocampus of rats receiving ginger rhizome extract were improved while the brain infarct volume was decreased. The cognitive enhancing effect and neuroprotective effect occurred partly via the antioxidant activity of the extract. In conclusion, our study demonstrated the beneficial effect of ginger rhizome to protect against focal cerebral ischemia.

scholarly journals Parallel Atrophy of Cortex and Basal Forebrain Cholinergic System in Mild Cognitive Impairment

2016 ◽  
pp. bhw019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Kilimann ◽  
Lucrezia Hausner ◽  
Andreas Fellgiebel ◽  
Massimo Filippi ◽  
Till J. Würdemann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Basal Forebrain ◽  
Cholinergic System
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