Projects and Grants per year
Grants and Contracts Details
Description
The public health goal of this project is to understand a mechanism of brain regrowth in
abstinence from alcohol dependence. By understanding this process, we hope to discover novel treatment
strategies (behavioral and pharmacological) for alcoholic brain damage and/or promote recovery from damage.
In abstinence after alcohol dependence, a reactive burst in adult neurogenesis occurs in the hippocampus of
rats exposed 4-days of binge alcohol. This burst results from an increase in neural stem cell (NSC)
proliferation at 1 week (T168) following binge alcohol exposure (Nixon and Crews, 2004). The promotion of
NSC proliferation and neurogenesis is driven by a milieu of factors within what is termed the neurogenic niche.
Recent discoveries support that microglia contribute to this niche, and after damage, microglial activation may
drive reactive neurogenesis (e.g. Ziv et al., 2006). Intriguingly, low levels or low gradations of microglia
activation are associated with the secretion of neuroprotective agents such as growth factors and anti-
inflammatory cytokines (Raivich et al., 1999). Thus, upon discovering a microglia event that suggests low-level
activation (namely microglia proliferation), we suspected a causal link between microglial events and the
promotion of neurogenesis during abstinence after alcohol dependence. Thus, the parent grant tests the
hypothesis that binge alcohol exposure produces a graded microglial response that drives neural stem cell
proliferation and subsequent neurogenesis observed in abstinence. This hypothesis is tested through three
specific aims, the second of which is directed at examining the extent of microglial reactivity following binge
ethanol exposure. This is the aim on which Alex Marshall has expressed interest in contributing.
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 9/30/07 → 8/31/11 |
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Projects
- 1 Finished
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Ethanol Alteration of the Neurogenic Niche
Nixon, K. (PI) & Pauly, J. (CoI)
9/30/07 → 8/31/17
Project: Research project