Bench to bedside review
Session explores neurovascular coupling, preeclampsia and more.
Bench to bedside success is reason to celebrate.
Yet, translating bench advances to bedside victories and improvement in clinical outcomes remains a challenge. That’s the focus of Thursday’s session, From Bench to Bedside and Beyond: Cerebral Microcirculation and Neurovascular Coupling.
The session will explore multiple bench-to-bedside topics, including cerebral microcirculation and neurovascular coupling.
“Standardization of preclinical experimental approaches should facilitate translation of bench knowledge to bedside wins, and mechanistically targeted antithrombotic approaches are emerging therapies,” said Opeolu Adeoye, MD, MS, professor of emergency medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri and a session panelist.
Marilyn J. Cipolla, PhD, FAHA, professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine in Burlington, is also among the session panelists. She will address microvascular damage in the brain during and after preeclampsia, a serious hypertensive condition during pregnancy.
“This type of damage can lead to stroke and seizure (called eclampsia) in preeclamptic women during pregnancy,” Dr. Cipolla said. “This condition is not just about during pregnancy. Women who had preeclampsia are at higher risk of cardiovascular disease later in life, including stroke and myocardial infarction. In addition, women with prior preeclampsia are at risk of early-onset cognitive decline that is likely due to brain microvascular dysfunction.”
Dr. Cipolla’s research uses an animal model of preeclampsia that has cognitive impairment postpartum, similar to women with prior preeclampsia.
“We have found that the arterioles that supply the hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory and cognition, are smaller and stiffer than arterioles from normal pregnant animals,” she said. “In addition, the normal hyperemic response to seizure is impaired in the hippocampus in this model, likely due the arterioles that are smaller and stiffer. The lack of an increase in blood flow to the hippocampus during seizure could lead to damage and cognitive impairment after preeclampsia.”
Other session topics and panelists include:
Microvascular Structure and Function in Development and Disease | Stephanie Bonney, PhD, Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Neurovascular Coupling in Vascular Cognitive Impairment | Costantino Iadecola, MD, Weill Cornell Medical College
Non-Invasive Monitoring of Microcirculation in Patients | Christopher G. Favilla, MD, University of Pennsylvania
Adjunctive Thrombolysis to Treat Microcirculatory Occlusions | Angel Chamorro, MD, Hospital Clinic
Philip M. Bath, MBBS, University of Nottingham, and Bharti Manwani, MD, UT Health Science Center, will serve as moderators.
