The stress-activated protein kinase c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) is a central regulator in neuronal death cascades. In animal models of cerebral ischemia, acute inhibition of JNK reduces infarction and improves outcomes. Recently however, emerging data suggest that many neuronal death mediators may have biphasic properties-deleterious in the acute stage but potentially beneficial in the delaye...

One of the key questions concerning glutamate toxicity is how a transient NMDA exposure can lead to a delayed death of neurons. To address this issue, we performed whole-cell recording on acutely isolated hippocampal CA1 neurons to monitor the membrane response after NMDA exposure. Transient NMDA exposure (100 microM, 10 min) induced an inward current (postexposure current; Ipe) which was assoc...

Mechanisms involved in the postischemic delay in neuronal recovery or death in rat hippocampus were evaluated by light and electron microscopy at 3, 15, 30, and 120 min and 24, 36, 48, and 72 h following severe cerebral ischemia that was produced by permanent occlusion of the vertebral arteries and 30-min occlusion of the common carotid arteries. During the early postischemic period, neurons in...

Recent evidence suggests that neural stem/precursor cells (NPCs) promote recovery in animal models with delayed neuronal death via a number of indirect bystander effects. A comprehensive knowledge of how transplanted NPCs exert their therapeutic effects is still lacking. Here, we investigated the effects of a delayed transplantation of adult syngenic NPCs--injected intravenously 72 h after tran...

Apoptosis is an evolutionarily conserved process critical to tissue development and tissue homeostasis in eukaryotic organisms and, when dysregulated, causes inappropriate cell death. Global ischemia is a neuronal insult that induces delayed cell death with many features of apoptosis. Ischemic preconditioning affords robust protection of CA1 neurons against a subsequent severe ischemic challeng...

The survival of neurons is maintained primarily by neurotrophic factors that suppress the apoptotic program. Axotomy or removal of peripheral targets causes neuronal cell death, but the mechanisms involved in the induction of this type of cell death remain poorly understood. Here, we show that DP5/Harakiri, a Bcl-2 homology domain 3-only member of the Bcl-2 family, is induced in motoneurons aft...