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Studies have shown that aging is a significant factor in worsening stroke outcomes. While many mechanisms may aggravate brain injury in the elderly, one such potential system may involve increased glial proliferation in the aged stroke patient that could result in increased scar formation. We hypothesized that in aged rats a single brain only exposure to a low radiation dose prior to focal brain ischemia would reduce glial proliferation and confer a long-term neuroprotective effect.

Brain-only proton irradiation (8Gy) was performed ten days prior to middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in aged male rats. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was undertaken in naive, radiation-only (Rad), MCAO, and MCAO+Rad groups at 2, 14 and 28days post-stroke followed by immunohistochemistry (day 28).

Ischemic lesion volume in MCAO+Rad group was decreased by 50.7% with an …