gms | German Medical Science

68th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)
7th Joint Meeting with the British Neurosurgical Society (SBNS)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

14 - 17 May 2017, Magdeburg

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Transcranial direct current stimulation leads to polarity-specific astrocyte activity in an experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage model in rats

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  • Kim Bleuel - Georg-August-University Göttingen, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Abteilung für Neuropathologie, Göttingen, Deutschland
  • Vesna Malinova - Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Göttingen, Deutschland
  • Bogdan Iliev - Georg-August-Universität, Klinik für Neurochirurgie, Göttingen, Deutschland
  • Walter Schulz-Schaeffer - Georg-August-University Göttingen, Abteilung für Neuropathologie, Göttingen, Deutschland
  • Veit Rohde - Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Göttingen, Deutschland
  • Dorothee Mielke - Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Klinik und Poliklinik für Neurochirurgie, Göttingen, Deutschland

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. Society of British Neurological Surgeons. 68. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC), 7. Joint Meeting mit der Society of British Neurological Surgeons (SBNS). Magdeburg, 14.-17.05.2017. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2017. DocMi.12.03

doi: 10.3205/17dgnc439, urn:nbn:de:0183-17dgnc4390

Published: June 9, 2017

© 2017 Bleuel et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. See license information at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Outline

Text

Objective: Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a noninvasive neuromodulation technique with therapeutic use in different neurological disorders including stroke. Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is often complicated by the occurrence of vasospasm-induced ischemia. The tDCS can provoke changes of the cortical activity and of the cerebral blood flow. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of tDCS on the astrocyte activity in an experimental SAH model in rats.

Methods: SAH was induced using the double-hemorrhage model in Sprague Dawley rats. For this purpose autologous arterial blood was injected into the cisterna magna on day 1 and day 2. The sham group got a saline solution injection instead of blood. tDCS (cathodal or anodal) with an intensity of 408 µA and a duration of 15 minutes was performed on day 3 and day 4. The control group and the sham group received no stimulation. The animals were sacrificed on day 5 and histological analyses of the brains were performed. A blinded evaluation of the astrocyte activity was performed using immunhistochemical staining against Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP).

Results: The brains of 28 animals were analyzed. In the anodal group 84% (10/12) of the animals showed an asymmetric astrocytic reaction. In contrast to that in 56% (5/9) of the animals in the cathodal group a symmetric astrocytic reaction was observed. In the control group (n=5) a symmetric astrocytic reaction was seen in all 5 animals. In the sham group (n=2) no astrocytic reaction could be detected.

Conclusion: The tDCS induces polarity-specific astrocytic reactions (symmetric and asymmetric) in an experimental SAH model in rats. Additional experiments are necessary to evaluate if tDCS has a neuroprotective effect in SAH.