Strokes, madness, and micro-starvation in the brain
One cause of strokes and dementia is a condition called ischemic cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). Some people inherit a mutation in the Notch3 gene that makes them prone to the disease at an early age. It has been difficult to study this condition because researchers have lacked a mouse model which reproduces the symptoms of the disease. Norbert Hübner's lab at the MDC, working with colleagues in France, has now accomplished this. Their work, which appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, is revising our view of the processes that lead to hereditary SVD and other more common forms of the disease.
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