Brain Plasticity In Spontaneous Recovery From Stroke

Stroke remains a leading cause of adult disability and mortality, which results in a heavy burden to the whole society. At present the main therapies to stroke aim to salvage the surviving nervous tissue in the periinfarct zone. And we also have to admit the fact that there is no effective and definite method to repair the functional defect resulting from the injured area.However, some degree of spontaneous recovery is usually seen in the weeks after stroke. Cerebral plasticity is widely acknowledged to play an important role in this spontaneous recovery after stroke. If we could unmask the latent pathophysiological, molecular or cellular mechanisms underlying plasticity and take adequate measures to adjust this kind of plasticity, it might be guided and meaningful in the therapies of stroke and will conspicuously improve the quality of life of patients with damaged nervous systems.This article reviews the possible advanced mechanisms underlying the spontaneous recovery after stroke, involving repair-related molecular and cellular changes, structural changes in axons and dendrites, glia and synaptic plasticity, endogenous neural stems, et al, and concludes a number of encouraging therapies in development aiming to improve patient outcomes not by acutely salvaging threatened tissue, but instead by promoting restoration of function in the subacute or chronic phase after stroke. We also pay attention to the domains of functional MRI(fMRI), which provide additional valuable data regarding the basis of behavioral recovery from stroke.