A receptor on our immune cells that can detect both the heat of a red chili pepper and the extreme physical heat of a pizza oven may help protect the brain following a traumatic brain injury, scientists say.
A third of patients hospitalized with a TBI die from damage that is actually secondary to the collision on a football field or highway that caused their initial head trauma, says Dr. Kumar Vaibhav, research scientist in the Department of Neurosurgery at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.
He is looking to find whether activating the receptor – transient receptor potential vanilloid-1, or TRPV1 – on the immune cells that rush to the ailing brain, can reduce the lingering inflammation associated with problems like poor cognition and depression in the aftermath of a TBI...(click for more).
Immune cells that are first responders to a traumatic brain injury appear to also contribute to the secondary damage that can occur even days later, scientists say.
The NETs – or neutrophil extracellular traps – these immune cells cast at the site of a TBI can become scaffolds for clots, and the scientists have evidence that dissolving NETs can reduce swelling and improve blood flow and recovery....(click for more).
Clinical Research
Cerebrovascular Research Program
Plasticity in Brain Tumor Patients Assessed by Functional MRI Scanning
Epilepsy
Stereotactic Procedures
Pediatric Neurosurgery
Neuroendoscopy
Neurobehavioral
Basic Research
Human Brain Laboratory
Neurophysiology and Anatomy of Sensory Systems
