Both aging and hypertension are significant risk factors for the development of vascular pathology, the underlying cause of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), which is the second most common cause of dementia. Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are small blood degradation products found in brain tissues accompanying aging, dementia, and cerebrovascular diseases (Lee et al., 2018), and are associated with a decrease in cognitive performance. Evidence has shown that in rodent brains CMBs can develop with aging and inflammation exacerbates the development. However, few studies have investigated the interactions among aging, hypertension, and cerebrovascular pathology. Previous studies conducted in our laboratory have shown a sex-dependent increase in blood pressure in male Sprague Dawley (SD) rats. Based on these findings, the goals of the current study are to define the relationship between age and the presence of 1) sub-acute cerebral microhemorrhage and/or 2) acute cerebral microhemorrhage, in spontaneously hypertensive male SD rats, in an effort to better understand the links between hypertension and VCI. SD rats at ages of 3 months, 8 months, and 16 months were acquired and their blood pressure levels were recorded. Brains were extracted, sectioned and stained to reveal any microbleeds in the hippocampus. The results support the hypothesis that there is an age-dependent increase in sub-acute CMBs in the hippocampus, but no relationship with acute CMBs could be drawn since there was no acute CMBs observed. This study demonstrates the positive relationship between sub- acute CMBs and age in an age-dependent hypertension animal model, and such understanding will further elucidate the pathological mechanisms involved in hypertension and VCI, and contribute to the discovery of future therapeutics in treating hypertension, vascular cognitive impairment and relate pathologies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/43746 |
| Date | 31 January 2022 |
| Creators | Zhou, Jinyan |
| Contributors | Wainford, Richard D., Moore, Tara |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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