Preprint
Article

Whole Body Vibration Therapy after Ischemia Reduces Brain Damage in Reproductively Senescent Female Rats

Submitted:

10 July 2018

Posted:

11 July 2018

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Abstract
A risk of ischemic stroke increases exponentially after menopause. Even a mild-ischemic stroke can result in increased frailty. Frailty is a state of increased vulnerability to adverse outcomes, which subsequently increases risk of cerebrovascular events and severe cognitive decline, particularly after menopause. Several interventions to reduce frailty and subsequent risk of stroke and cognitive decline have been proposed in laboratory animals and patients. One of them is whole body vibration (WBV). WBV improves brain hemodynamics and lessens frailty-related functional and cognitive deterioration. The goal of current study is to test the efficacy of WBV in reducing post-ischemic stroke frailty and brain damage in reproductively senescent female rats. Reproductively senescent Sprague–Dawley female rats were exposed to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) and randomly assigned to either WBV or control groups. Animals placed in the WBV group underwent 30 days of WBV (40 Hz) treatment performed twice daily for 15 min each session for 5 days each week. The motor functions of animals belonging to both groups were tested intermittently and at the end of treatment period. Brains were then harvested for inflammatory markers and histopathological analysis. The results demonstrate a significant reduction in inflammatory markers, infarct volume, and significant increases in brain-derived neurotrophic factor and improvement in functional activity after tMCAO in middle-aged female rats that were treated with WBV as compared to the control group. Our results may help faster translation of the WBV intervention for improved outcome after stroke, particularly among frail women.
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Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.

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