A synthetic version of a hormone naturally produced by the thymus gland helps repair nerve tissue in the brain after a stroke, says the EurekAlert website, citing animal research conducted by scientists.
A stroke is a sudden disorder of the brain activity most often caused by a blockage of the cerebral artery by a clot and ischemia of the nerve tissue (ischemic stroke), and less commonly by a rupture of a vessel and a hemorrhage into the brain (haemorrhagic stroke).
As stroke remains one of the most important causes of disability and death in people worldwide, scientists are constantly looking for methods to repair the nerve tissue after stroke enough for patients to function normally in society.
Specialists from the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit are investigating the possibility of using a synthetic equivalent of the thymus hormone beta 4 for this purpose. wound healing process.
The experiments were conducted in adult rats that had a stroke induced by blockage of the cerebral artery. A day later they were given the first dose of synthetic thymosin beta 4. The animals then received four more doses 3 days apart. As a control, the second group of post-stroke rodents received only saline.
After 8 weeks, the researchers found that the rats receiving thymosin performed significantly better than the animals in the control group.
It turned out that thymosin stimulated the growth of new blood vessels at the site of nerve tissue damage, improving its blood supply. It also promoted the formation of the myelin sheath on nerve fibers. This sheath not only protects the long extensions of neurons from damage, but also acts as a kind of insulator on the cables, accelerating the transmission of signals between neurons.
According to the authors of the study, these experiments prove that thymosin beta 4 helps in the repair and regeneration of brain tissue damaged in a stroke.
According to Dr. Daniel C. Morris, who participated in the study, these results offer hope for a new method of treating ischemic strokes in humans.
Scientists will present their work on Wednesday at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona (PAP).