The ability of patients to recover neurologic function after ischemia injury produced by stroke depends upon a variety of factors. If therapies and drugs are to be designed to promote recovery after stroke, it is of central importance to understand the molecular alterations induced by ischemic cell damage in the central nervous system and to identify means by which these molecular changes may promote healing, compensatory synaptic changes, and subsequent recovery of neurological function. This project focuses upon investigating the role of acidic and basic fibroblast growth factor (aFGF and bFGF) in promoting tissue repair after stroke. Both growth factors are present in moderate to high levels in mature nervous tissues and their precise physiological function in these tissues is only poorly understood. Recent evidence, however, suggests that the FGFs might act as both neurotrophic and mitogenic stimulants, and are likely to be involved in the response of nervous tissue to injury. It is the goal of the present study to elucidate the biological function of aFGF and bFGF in rat cerebral cortex and hippocampus, with particular emphasis on the role of these factors may play in tissue-repair after injury, such as stroke. The specific questions to be asked are: 1. What are the levels of aFGF and bFGF protein and mRNA expressed in specific regions of CNS? 2. Which cell-types in cerebral cortex and hippocampus synthesize aFGF and bFGF? 3. What are the signals that regulate FGF-expression in cerebral cortex and hippocampus? 4. What are the characteristics of the response of different specific cortical cell-types to aFGF and bFGF?
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