The incidence of stroke and dementia are diverging across the world, rising for those in low-and middle-income countries and falling in those in high-income countries. This suggests that whatever factors cause these trends are potentially modifiable. At the population level, neurological disorders as a group account for the largest proportion of disability-adjusted life years globally (10%). Among neurological disorders, stroke (42%) and dementia (10%) dominate. Stroke and dementia confer risks for each other and share some of the same, largely modifiable, risk and protective factors. In principle, 90% of strokes and 35% of dementias have been estimated to be preventable. Because a stroke doubles the chance of developing dementia and stroke is more common than dementia, more than a third of dementias could be prevented by preventing stroke. Developments at the pathological, pathophysiological, and clinical level also point to new directions. Growing understanding of brain pathophysiology has unveiled the reciprocal interaction of cerebrovascular disease and neurodegeneration identifying new therapeutic targets to include protection of the endothelium, the blood-brain barrier, and other components of the neurovascular unit. In addition, targeting amyloid angiopathy aspects of inflammation and genetic manipulation hold new testable promise. In the meantime, accumulating evidence suggests that whole populations experiencing improved education, and lower vascular risk factor profiles (e.g., reduced prevalence of smoking) and vascular disease, including stroke, have better cognitive function and lower dementia rates. At the individual levels, trials have demonstrated that anticoagulation of atrial fibrillation can reduce the risk of dementia by 48% and that systolic blood Hachinski et al.

The incidence of diabetes mellitus has increased dramatically over the past two to three decades. According to the International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas, 415 million people worldwide had diabetes in 2015, and this number is expected to grow by 5% annually, predominantly as a result of increasing prevalence of type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, an estimated 100 million Europeans and 80 million Americans have impaired glucose tolerance or prediabetes. Few people die from acute diabetes in countries with comprehensive health care systems, but the disease is inflicting a huge medical, social and economic burden on society owing to the need for lifelong treatment of its systemic consequences and the insidious development of multi-organ damage.Peripheral neuropathy (BOXES 1,2) is a common but often neglected complication of long-term diabetes, and the lack of treatment options reflects an incomplete understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms. Hyperglycaemia is generally accepted as the primary pathogenic insult in type 1 and type 2 diabetic neuropathy, although roles are emerging for other factors, such as impaired insulin signalling, hypertension and dyslipidaemia (particularly for type 2 diabetes), which might precede overt hyperglycaemia 1 . Many preclinical studies, and occasional clinical studies, have indicated that diabetic neuropathy -like diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy -results from microvascular disease, with a focus on axonal degeneration as a consequence of ischaemia and/or hypoxia. This mechanism, however, is likely to be only one aspect of a more complex pathogenesis.The earliest descriptions of pathology in diabetic neuropathy indicated that Schwannopathy accompanied axonal degeneration. The majority of clinical and basic research in diabetic neuropathy since then has focused on the effects on neurons. However, accumulating data from research into the development and regeneration of the PNS has identified Schwann cells as equally indispensable components that maintain neuronal structure and function, nourish axons, and promote survival and growth upon injury. The early reports from 1979 that demonstrated morphological changes in Schwann cells in human diabetic neuropathy 2 are now supported by an increased awareness of molecular alterations in Schwann cells during diabetes 3 . Schwann cells express a wide range of receptors and, when they sense insults or danger signals, they upregulate synthesis and secretion of factors that stimulate neuroprotection, regrowth and remyelination, or factors that aggravate disease phenotypes 4 . The most recent studies have demonstrated that Schwann cells regulate many aspects of axonal function, so that disruption of their metabolism by diabetes results in the accumulation of neurotoxic intermediates and compromises production of neuronal support factors, contributing to axonal degeneration, endothelial dysfunction and diabetic neuropathy. Abstract | The prevalence of diabetes worldwide is at pandemic levels, with the number of patients increasing by 5% annu...

Our understanding of how capillary blood flow and oxygen distribute across cortical layers to meet the local metabolic demand is incomplete. We addressed this question by using two-photon imaging of resting-state microvascular oxygen partial pressure (PO2) and flow in the whisker barrel cortex in awake mice. Our measurements in layers I-V show that the capillary red-blood-cell flux and oxygenation heterogeneity, and the intracapillary resistance to oxygen delivery, all decrease with depth, reaching a minimum around layer IV, while the depth-dependent oxygen extraction fraction is increased in layer IV, where oxygen demand is presumably the highest. Our findings suggest that more homogeneous distribution of the physiological observables relevant to oxygen transport to tissue is an important part of the microvascular network adaptation to local brain metabolism. These results will inform the biophysical models of layer-specific cerebral oxygen delivery and consumption and improve our understanding of the diseases that affect cerebral microcirculation.

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The left posterior middle temporal region, anterior to V5/MT, has been shown to be responsive both to images with implied motion, to simulated motion, and to motion verbs. In this study, we investigated whether sentence context alters the response of the left posterior middle temporal region. 'Fictive motion' sentences are sentences in which an inanimate subject noun, semantically incapable of self movement, is coupled with a motion verb, yielding an apparent semantic contradiction (e.g. 'The path comes into the garden.'). However, this context yields no less activation in the left posterior middle temporal region than sentences in which the motion can be applied to the subject noun. We speculate that the left posterior middle temporal region activity in fictive motion sentences reflects the fact that the hearer applies motion to the depicted scenario by scanning it egocentrically.

Background Studies in anesthetized patients suggest that phenylephrine reduces regional cerebral oxygen saturation compared with ephedrine. The present study aimed to quantify the effects of phenylephrine and ephedrine on cerebral blood flow and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen in brain tumor patients. The authors hypothesized that phenylephrine reduces cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen in selected brain regions compared with ephedrine. Methods In this double-blinded, randomized clinical trial, 24 anesthetized patients with brain tumors were randomly assigned to ephedrine or phenylephrine treatment. Positron emission tomography measurements of cerebral blood flow and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen in peritumoral and normal contralateral regions were performed before and during vasopressor infusion. The primary endpoint was between-group difference in cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen. Secondary endpoints included changes in cerebral blood flow, oxygen extraction fraction, and regional cerebral oxygen saturation. Results Peritumoral mean ± SD cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen values before and after vasopressor (ephedrine, 67.0 ± 11.3 and 67.8 ± 25.7 μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1; phenylephrine, 68.2 ± 15.2 and 67.6 ± 18.0 μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1) showed no intergroup difference (difference [95% CI], 1.5 [−13.3 to 16.3] μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1 [P = 0.839]). Corresponding contralateral hemisphere cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen values (ephedrine, 90.8 ± 15.9 and 94.6 ± 16.9 μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1; phenylephrine, 100.8 ± 20.7 and 96.4 ± 17.7 μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1) showed no intergroup difference (difference [95% CI], 8.2 [−2.0 to 18.5] μmol · 100 g−1 · min−1 [P = 0.118]). Ephedrine significantly increased cerebral blood flow (difference [95% CI], 3.9 [0.7 to 7.0] ml · 100 g−1 · min−1 [P = 0.019]) and regional cerebral oxygen saturation (difference [95% CI], 4 [1 to 8]% [P = 0.024]) in the contralateral hemisphere compared to phenylephrine. The change in oxygen extraction fraction in both regions (peritumoral difference [95% CI], −0.6 [−14.7 to 13.6]% [P = 0.934]; contralateral hemisphere difference [95% CI], −0.1 [− 12.1 to 12.0]% [P = 0.989]) were comparable between groups. Conclusions The cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen changes in peritumoral and normal contralateral regions were similar between ephedrine- and phenylephrine-treated patients. In the normal contralateral region, ephedrine was associated with an increase in cerebral blood flow and regional cerebral oxygen saturation compared with phenylephrine. Editor’s Perspective What We Already Know about This Topic What This Article Tells Us That Is New

Background and purpose: The present study investigated the mechanisms by which oleanolic acid, a component of olive oil, increases release of nitric oxide (NO). Experimental approach: Measurements of isometric tension, NO concentration, or endothelial cell calcium were made in rat isolated mesenteric arteries. Immunoblotting for endothelial NOS (eNOS) and Akt kinase were performed in primary cultures of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Key results: Oleanolic acid (3-30 mM) evoked endothelium-dependent relaxations in noradrenaline-contracted rat superior and small mesenteric arteries. In rat superior mesenteric arteries, oleanolic acid induced simultaneous increases in NO concentration and relaxation, and these responses were inhibited by an inhibitor of NOS, asymmetric dimethyl-L-arginine (300 mM) and by the NO scavenger, oxyhaemoglobin (10 mM). Oleanolic acid-evoked NO increases were not reduced in Ca 2 þ -free solution and in the presence of an inhibitor of endoplasmic reticulum calcium-ATPase, thapsigargin (1 mM). Oleanolic acid evoked relaxation without changes in endothelial cell calcium, but decreased smooth muscle calcium in arterial segments. Oleanolic acid failed to increase calcium in HUVECs, but increased time-dependently phosphorylation of Akt kinase at Serine 473 (Akt-Ser 473 ) and eNOS at Serine 1177 (eNOS-Ser 1177 ), which was attenuated by inhibitors of phosphoinositide-3-kinase. Conclusions and implications:This study provides direct evidence that a component of olive oil, oleanolic acid, activated endothelium-dependent release of NO and decreased smooth muscle cell calcium followed by relaxation. The oleanolic acidevoked endothelium-derived NO release was independent of endothelial cell calcium and involved phosphoinositide-3-kinasedependent phosphorylation of Akt-Ser 473 followed by phosphorylation of eNOS-Ser 1177 .