Development of a therapeutic method for neurological disorders focusing on artificial temperature control

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25640003
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: Gunma University
• Principal Investigator: SHIBASAKI Koji 群馬大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (20399554)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 脳内温度 / 温度 / TRPV4 / 冷却 / てんかん / 治療 / TRPチャネル / 温度センサー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Artificial control of brain temperature is one of the therapeutic method for neurological disorders. We newly developed a novel electrical device to control the brain temperature in a restricted area. This device can locally control mouse brain temperature from 30℃ to 42℃ in vivo. Firstly, we examined whether local brain cooling caused tissue damage and cell death, and confirmed that none of those was occurred in the cooling region. We speculated that brain cooling treatment at epileptogenic foci could effectively suppress epileptic discharges. Notably, the cooling treatment drastically suppressed neuronal discharges without any side effects including the tissue damage and cell death.

Free Research Field

分子神経生理学