Effects of Specific Sensorimotor Forelimb Training on Endogenous Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation in the Dentate Gyrus after Focal Brain Ischemia

Neurogenesis is known to occur throughout life in the dentate gyrus of rodents and is modulated by different specific but also unspecific stimuli (e.g., enriched environment). In this study we investigated the effects of specific sensorimotor training on neurogenesis in the dentate gyrus of adult rats after focal brain ischemia. Small cortical photothrombotic infarcts (PT) were induced in the forelimb sensorimotor cortex. We compared one group of animals receiving daily reaching training (RT) of the impaired forelimb with a standard housing group (ST). Every group consisted of lesioned animals (PT) and sham-oper…