Functional brain recovery during six months observation.

<p>BOLD images obtained during the 24 weeks exploration period for two control animals (top rows), presenting a permanent loss of BOLD signal on the affected right hemisphere, and the two stem cell implanted animals (bottom rows) that regained BOLD activity at the affected hemisphere starting from week 10.</p

Quantitative analysis of electrophysiologic data during recovery.

<p><i>Top row</i>, Amplitude (in µV) of the somatosensory evoked potentials detected over the S1_FL cortical area of the brain, acquired during the fMRI sessions. <i>Bottom row</i>, result of the sticky tape behavioral test. Time to contact the tape stuck to the forepaws of the animals is presented (mean ± standard deviation, in seconds). As in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0012779#pone-0012779-g004" target="_blank">Fig. 4</a>, the plots present the data for the control group (white bars), and for the group of animals treated with stem cells that recovered BOLD signal (dark gray bars).</p

Quantitative analysis of fMRI data during recovery.

<p><i>Top row</i>, percent change of signal intensity (BOLD effect) during stimulation of the forepaw (mean value ± standard deviation) for the healthy (left plot) and affected (right plot) hemispheres of the brain, for the control group (white bars), and for the two animals treated with stem cells that regained BOLD signal in the affected hemisphere (dark gray bars). <i>Bottom row</i>, activated volume (in mm³) in the primary somatosensory cortex in the healthy (left) and affected (right) hemispheres.</p

Localization of labeled cells by T2*-weighted MRI.

<p>3D high resolution T2*-weighted MR images, pre- (1st column) and post- (2nd column) implantation of USPIO-labeled stem cells, showing the successful implantation of the cells into the brain parenchyma. Corresponding T2-weighted images (3^rd column) confirm that cells were implanted in healthy tissue.</p

Selection process of the animals for the treatment inclusion.

<p>Animals were selected according to the outcome from the MCAO surgery (only subcortical vs. cortico-subcortical lesions) and the fMRI study performed at week 3 (regained vs. non-regained BOLD activation). Finally the remaining animals were randomly asigned to a control and a stem cell-treated group. Gray boxes indicate animals excluded from further procedures at each time point, while white boxes indicate the animals selected for successive stages of the study.</p

Conformational Changes in High-Density Lipoprotein Nanoparticles Induced by High Payloads of Paramagnetic Lipids

High-density lipoprotein (HDL) nanoparticles doped with gadolinium lipids can be used as magnetic resonance imaging diagnostic agents for atherosclerosis. In this study, HDL nanoparticles with different molar fractions of gadolinium lipids (0 < <i>x</i>_Gd‑lipids < 0.33) were prepared, and the MR relaxivity values (<i>r</i>1 and <i>r</i>2) for all compositions were measured. Both <i>r</i>1 and <i>r</i>2 parameters reached a maximal value at a molar fraction of approximately <i>x</i>_Gd‑lipids = 0.2. Higher payloads of gadolinium did not significantly increase relaxivity values but induced changes in the structure of HDL, increasing the size of the particles from <i>d</i>_H = 8.2 ± 1.6 to 51.7 ± 7.3 nm. High payloads of gadolinium lipids trigger conformational changes in HDL, with potential effects on the in vivo behavior of the nanoparticles

Brain temperature in the ischemic and the contralateral (healthy) brain hemispheres, as determined from Magnetic Resonance measurements on ischemic animals with body temperatures of 39°C (top), 37°C (middle) and 33°C (bottom).

<p>Statistical significances: *<i>P</i><0.05.</p

Pseudocolor T2 weighted MR images of a representative brain of each group.

<p>Images include 7 consecutive 1-mm thick coronal slices, showing the extent of the ischemic damage throughout the whole brain (position of each slice compared to Bregma, to Paxinos and Watson <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0044191#pone.0044191-Paxinos1" target="_blank">[45]</a>, is presented at the bottom).</p

Blood Interleukin-6 levels (in pg/mL) in animals submitted to hypothermia (33°C, n = 8), normothermia (37°C, n = 7), hyperthermia (39°C, n = 7), hypothermia plus 7.27 g/Kg glutamate (Glu) (n = 8) and hyperthermia plus 35 mg/Kg oxaloacetate (OAA) (n = 8) (A).

<p>Lactate levels during occlusion period (expressed as the ration glutamate/creatine-phosphocreatine peak areas on MRS spectra) on the ischemic brain of the same group of animals (<b>B</b>).</p

sj-pdf-1-jcb-10.1177_0271678X231197946 - Supplemental material for Multimodal imaging of the role of hyperglycemia following experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage

Supplemental material, sj-pdf-1-jcb-10.1177_0271678X231197946 for Multimodal imaging of the role of hyperglycemia following experimental subarachnoid hemorrhage by Ana Joya, Sandra Plaza-García, Daniel Padro, Laura Aguado, Leyre Iglesias, Maider Garbizu, Vanessa Gómez-Vallejo, Carlos Laredo, Unai Cossío, Ramon Torné, Sergio Amaro, Anna M Planas, Jordi Llop, Pedro Ramos-Cabrer, Carles Justicia and Abraham Martín in Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow & Metabolism</p