AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Stroke is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Although tremendous achievements in the ability to diagnose stroke has been witnessed in the past several decades, the treatment is still not precisional and not satisfactory. It has been demonstrated that brain ischemic change is accompanied by significance of inflammatory response and necrotic brain injury. Oxidative stress plays one of the important roles in inflammatory pathway. Free radical substances are increased in ischemic stroke and increased oxidative stress is considered as important cause contributes to brain damage. Central nervous system provides systemic, regional and local routes to modulate the immediate inflammatory response. In local routes, the peripheral nervous system release neuropeptides to participate local inflammation. In regional routes, the autonomic nervous system innervates immune organs such as thymus and bone marrow to modulate inflammation. In systemic routes, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis release glucocorticoids to control inflammation at a systemic level. In this study, we observe that there are relationship between autonomic dysfunction and inflammatory titer and there is central autonomic network which may play a role in modulate autonomic function. Advisors/Committee Members: Wei-Che Lin (chair), Nai-Wen Tsai (chair), Cheng-Hsien Lu (committee member), Yu-Jih Su (chair), Wen-neng Chang (chair).