Abstract #1461
fMRI of Delayed Albumin Treatment during Stroke Recovery in Rats: Implication for Fast Neuronal Habituation in Recovering Brains
Kim Y, Mandeville J, van Meer M, Dai G, Topalkara K, Qui J, Tejima E, Dijkhuizen R, Moskowitz M, Lo E, Rosen B
Athinoula Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging/ Massachusetts General Hospital
Accumulating experimental and clinical data suggest that albumin may be neuroprotective for stroke. Here, we use fMRI to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of albumin and its effects on the recovery of stimuli-induced cerebral hemodynamics. Temporal characteristics of the ipsilesional somatosensory BOLD responses in the albumin-treated rats appeared considerably altered compared to those of contralesional responses while such temporal alterations were not pronounced for the CBV responses. These characteristic fMRI temporal profiles of the albumin-treated brains may be due to altered neuronal responses rather than altered neurovascular coupling, which implies an unusually fast habituation of neuronal responses in the lesional cortex.
