The effect of young and aged serum exosomes on ischemic stroke outcome
Description: Systemic factors in the blood can profoundly reverse aging related impairments. Consistently, our previous study evidenced that intraperitoneal administration of young plasma into aged ischemic rats significantly improved functional outcome. On the contrary, intraperitoneal administration of plasma from aged rats into young ischemic rats worsened brain injury and motor deficits. However, the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. However, whether serum exosomes or soluble factors contributes to functional recovery after ischemic stroke and underlying mechanisms remains unclear. Our preliminary data showed that injection of serum exosomes derived from young rats into ischemic rats reduced histological damage, compared to old serum-derived exosome. Thus, our central hypothesis is that: (a) the young and old serum-derived exosomes will differentially affect functional outcome after ischemic stroke and (b) the underlying mechanism is likely due to the altered levels of beneficial and detrimental factors in exosomes from the young and aged rats. Our Specific Aim is to determine the differential effect of serum-derived exosomes from young adult (3-month-old) and old (24-month-old) rats on functional outcome after ischemic stroke, and identify the beneficial and detrimental factors affecting stroke recovery. The rationale for the proposed research is that successful completion of the proposed experiments will provide missing, fundamental knowledge regarding the impact of the aging-induced changes in exosomes on functional recovery of young and aged ischemic rats. Identifying beneficial and detrimental molecules in young and old blood exosome may result in new and innovative approaches to prevent or treat a variety of age-related diseases including stroke.
Funder: American Heart Association
Amount: $53,690
Funding type: training
Funder scheme: Predoctoral Fellowship
Start date: 2018-07-01
End date: 2020-06-30
Investigators: Hongxia Zhang, Hongxia Zhang
Institution: University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth
Funded outputs count: 4
Funder award ID: 18PRE34020126
OpenAlex ID: G1732963181