Membrane potential as stroke target

Abstract

All neurons in the mammalian brain develop a sustained depolarization in the absence of oxygen. In many structures of the grey matter including the brain cortex and the basal ganglia such sustained depolarizations develop abruptly in a large population of neurons and propagate in the tissue. Therefore, they are often referred to as spreading depolarizations. Spreading depolarizations seem to facilitate neuronal death and have now been demonstrated in the human brain in patients with aneurismal subarachnoid hemorrhage, delayed ischemic stroke after subarachnoid hemorrhage, and malignant hemispheric stroke. Therapies that target spreading depolarizations may potentially treat these conditions. These tsunami-like spreading depolarizations in the diseased brain are distinguished from the brief depolarizations that convey the flow of information in the healthy brain. However, understanding the latter is a prerequisite to develop an understanding of the former.