The functional role of murine TLR8 in the inflammatory response of the central nervous system (CNS) remains unclear. Murine TLR8 does not appear to respond to human TLR7/8 agonists, due to a five amino acid deletion in the ectodomain. However, recent studies have suggested that murine TLR8 may be stimulated by alternate ligands, which include vaccinia virus DNA, phosphothioate oligodeoxynucleot...

Microglia is considered the only cell population of mesodermal origin, which comprises 10% of the cells in brain parenchyma. Recent neural stem cell (NSC) studies demonstrate that the brain has regenerative potential. NSCs do not give rise to microglial cells, however indicating that NSCs alone cannot complete the regenetion of the brain. Although the role of microglia is not fully understood, ...

parkinson's disease (pd) is a very common neurodegenerative disease among the elderly population. current treatments for parkinson’s disease are based on symptom therapy but not the underlying cause of the disease. this disorder is caused neuronal death which triggers the activation of resident glial cells. this situation leads to neuroinflammation in the central nervous system. activated ...

Background: In this study, we examined a new two step induction protocol for improving the differentiation of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells into neural progenitor cells. Materials and Methods: Human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells were first cultured in Dulbecco’s modified eagle medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum in a humidified incu...

PURPOSE Müller glia have multiple functions in the retina, including synthesis of neurotrophic factors, uptake and metabolism of neurotransmitters, spatial buffering of ions, maintenance of the blood-retinal barrier, and response to injury. A population of Müller glia has some stem cell-like characteristics both in vivo and in vitro. The purpose of this study was to generate and characterize no...

Objective(s):Melatonin is known as an anti-inflammatory agent, and it has been proven to exert neuroprotection through inhibition of cell death (apoptosis) in several models of brain injury.Secondary injury following the primary traumatic brain injury (TBI) results in glial cells activation, especially astrocytes. In fact, astrocyte activation causes the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines...

Inflammation is portion of the body's immune response and it is basically a host protective response to tissue ischemia, injury, autoimmune responses or infectious agents. Although the information presented so far points to a detrimental role for inflammation in central nervous system (CNS) disease, it may also be useful. CNS demonstrates characteristic of inflammation, and in response to damag...

In the modern view of synaptic transmission, astrocytes are no longer confined to the role of merely supportive cells. Although they do not generate action potentials, they nonetheless exhibit electrical activity and can influence surrounding neurons through gliotransmitter release. In this work, we explored whether optogenetic activation of glial cells could act as an amplification mechanism t...

background: recent reports demonstrated that intravenous route as a minimally invasive method, similar to direct injection, is suitable for bone marrow stromal cell (bmsc) transplantation. in this study, we made a comparison of intraspinal and intravenous route of bmsc administration to repair injured spinal cord tissue. methods: six groups of adult female rats were used in this study. laminect...