Blood Oxygenation Level-Dependent Functional MRI of Early Evidences of Brain Plasticity after Hemodialysis Session by Helixone Membrane of Patients with Indices of Adrenal Deficiency

Abstract

Background: Various alterations of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function have been described in patients with chronic renal failure. Nevertheless, controversial evidences were stated about the association between adrenal function deficiency (AD) and hemodialysis (HD). Purpose: The goal of this paper was to estimate indirect indices of the adrenal gland dysfunction which is potentially influenced by oxidative stress (OS) that still generates brain plasticity and reorganization of the functional control.Methods: Two male patients undergoing HD by the synthetic Helixone membrane for more than 6 months at the HD Center of the University Hospital of Fez, Fez, Morocco, were recruited. They underwent identical assessment immediately before and after the full HD session; this consisted of a blood ionogram revealing rates of sodium and calcium, and brain blood oxygenation level-dependent functional MRI (BOLD-fMRI) using a motor paradigm in block design. Results: The blood ionogram revealed hypercalcemia and hyponatremia in both patients. Both biological assessment and BOLD-fMRI study results revealed a high level of OS that induced activation of a significantly large brain volume area suggesting the occurrence of possible brain plasticity and functional control reorganization induced by free radicals and enhanced by AD. Conclusion: The occurrence of brain plasticity and functional control reorganization was demonstrated in both patients studied who were undergoing HD by BOLD-fMRI with a notable sensitivity; this plasticity is induced by elevated OS occasioned by HD technique itself and probably amplified by AD. Similar results were found in a previous study performed on the same patients undergoing HD by a polysulfone membrane.

Notes on the Recent History of Neuroscience in Africa

“…In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, neuroscience research in Tunisia and Algeria involved mostly clinical studies on neurogenetics and movement disorders (Tazir and Geronimi, 1990 ; Hentati et al, 1994 ; Gouider-Khouja et al, 2000 ; Younes-Mhenni et al, 2007 ). Clinical research in Morocco included stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, addiction and fMRI studies of brain plasticity, to mention a few (El Kadmiri et al, 2014 ; Souirti et al, 2014 ; Mohamed and Kissani, 2015 ; Chtaou et al, 2016 ; Zarrouq et al, 2016 ; Boujraf et al, 2017 ). Basic neuroscience research was introduced to Morocco in the 1970s with the study of behavioral consequences of brain lesions and nutritional deficiency in rats (Bengelloun et al, 1976 ).…”