Electrical stimulation of CNS cells in vitro and studies on the influence of electrical stimulation on inflammatory reactions of relevant CNS cells
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an established therapeutic method for the symptomatic treatment of various movement disorders.
In this case, electrical stimulation is used to intervene in the complex motor control circuits away from the underlying pathology. The cellular mechanisms are still largely unexplored here, in particular no in vitro studies comparable to DBS stimulation parameters have been carried out.
As part of this research project, a model for the electrical stimulation of cells in the CNS is to be established, which is to be based on the common clinical stimulation parameters. Mit diesem Model soll der Einfluss der elektrischen Stimulation auf das Sterben, die Proliferation und das Chemokin- und Zytokinprofil relevanter Zellen des ZNS untersucht werden. Against the background that inflammatory processes play a major role in many neurodegenerative diseases, the influence of electrical stimulation under inflammatory conditions will also be investigated in further experiments. For this purpose, the cells are to be additionally incubated with lipopolysaccharide and subsequently the content of various inflammatory mediators is to be determined. Subsequently, the influence of neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory substances such as trefoil factor 3 and erythropoietin on the chemokine and cytokine profile under electrical stimulation will be investigated.
In addition to establishing a clinically relevant cell culture model for electrical stimulation, we hope to gain a better understanding of the cellular processes involved in DBS.
It is a collaborative project between the Clinic for Neurosurgery at UKSH, Campus Kiel (Director: Prof. Dr. M. Synowitz, Head of Research Laboratory: Prof. Dr. Dr. J. Held-Feindt) and the Institute of Anatomy (Director: Prof. Dr. R. Lucius). The project is funded in part by the 2017 research grant from the medical faculty of Kiel University. In 2019, the research project will also receive funding from the Mehdorn Family Foundation.