Agatha Lyczek1, 2, Miroslaw Janowski1, 2, Jinyuan Zhou1, 3, Jiadi Xu1, 4, Peter PC van Zijl1, 4, Jeff WM Bulte1, 2, Piotr Walczak1, 2
1Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Institute for Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 3F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Research Institute , Baltimore, MD, United States; 4F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Research Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States
It is believed that leukocyte trafficking into the central nervous system contributes substantially to secondary brain damage, exacerbating the follow-up effects of ischemia. Characterizing stroke lesions in immunocompetent (balb/c) versus immunodeficient (rag2-/-) mice may provide an important insight into neuroinflammation in stroke. We characterized, with MRI, the evolution of ouabain-induced stroke in balb/c and rag2-/- mice, and we demonstrate that, although all mice developed similar acute lesions, immunodeficient mice dramatically improved by day five, while continued deterioration was observed in immunocompetent animals.