Brain Regeneration Post Stroke

Stroke has become the third leading cause of death in the United States, with more than 700,000 strokes occurring each year. Thanks to medical advances, and a better understanding of how the brain works, death attributed to stroke is decreasing. While the outcome of recovery all depends on what type of stroke takes place and the severity of the stroke, recent findings confirm that the brain is indeed, a miraculous organ that somehow finds a way to heal and regenerate itself without the assistance of modern medicine.
When a stroke occurs and brain cells are deprived of oxygen, brain cells often die after only minutes of being suppressed, resulting in physical and mental disability that can often be permanent. While every patient's outcome is different, there have been many cases where people recover almost completely from very substantial strokes, even after missing that initial window of opportunity for immediate treatment. Research now shows that only weeks after a stroke, new blood vessels often form and brand new neurons will find a way to reach the site of the stroke, and begin the regeneration process on their own. From there, cells have the ability to heal and reconnect themselves, resulting in a stroke patient's physical disabilities diminishing as well as mental barriers improving. While the amount of these new neurons that are present during this recovery is small, it's large in its impact on the understanding on how the brain works and heals after a trauma such as a stroke.
S. Thomas Carmichael, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at UCLA Geffen School of Medicine has done extensive research regarding this regeneration. He concludes that these neurons in adult mice were found at the site of an induced stroke at a steady rate for up to 4 months following. A study was also conducted at Princeton University which concluded that in adult monkeys, new nerve cells were growing in the cerebral cortex of the animals, showing that regeneration is more than possible at an even larger scale than we may believe. While the first few months of recovery from a stroke are most important and show the most obvious changes, complete recovery can take place well over a year. The regeneration of these neurons can be not only an enormous help for initial recovery, but also a large cause of a person's ability to return to their prior independent living.
Steven A. Goldman, M.D. of Cornell University and his colleagues conducted a study where they took samples of tissue that had been removed from a patient during a brain surgery. They then removed the 'seed' cells from the tissue, separating it from the mature cells, and they were able to aid these 'seed' cells in their growth continuation. Goldman believes it's still way too early to conclude that they can utilize these findings during transplants or surgeries, but the results sound promising. Its still unknown how these cells would be able to survive implantation, or how to point them in the right direction.
This large discovery of the brain's ability to regenerate itself creates opportunity for future advances that center around these newborn neurons, and their potential to heal the brain for stroke patients. This concept creates the possibility for harvesting the potential of healing other neurological traumas that take place, not to mention diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. It was once believed that the brain was an organ that would slowly decay as we age, and its abilities would decrease as our years on this earth increased, however we now have evidence that proves our brain is able to remarkably regenerate and grow when necessary. It is still uncertain the conditions that need to be present for this regeneration, but with time and research future studies may uncover some great secrets of the brain.