Comparative Study Of Brain Injuries After Intracerebral Hemorrhage In Age And Young Rat

Background and ObjectiveIntracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is a common and often fatal stroke subtype. ICH is mostly a disease of the elderly, but most current experimental ICH models have used young animals. Age is an important factor in other forms of brain injury, affecting microglia and astrocyte reactions and plasticity. Whether age affects brain injury after ICH has not been systematically studied in an animal model. Therefore, the present study investigated the effects of aging on brain injury after ICH.The study examines the effects of aging on neurological deficits, brain swelling, and glial cell reaction after ICH. The development of behavioral assays for rodent models of ICH has allowed assessment of potential drug therapies, but they also allow the assessment of the impact of age on ICH-induced brain injury. Brain swelling after ICH is an important component of brain injury after ICH, causing herniation-related deaths and long-term neurological deficits. In addition, this study examines the perihematomal reactions of microglia and astrocytes. Microglia are cells within the brain that are activated in response to injury. In normal brain, microglia are quiescent, but they are activated by injuries such as ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. They become highly...