Abstract
The number of people affected by brain damage each year ranges from millions to billions. Research into factors that affect brain damage and recovery from the disabilities incurred is pertinent to alleviating stress put on individuals, their families, healthcare systems, and society as a whole. Circadian rhythms are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom, throughout individual organisms, and even in each cell of an organism. Therefore, circadian influences on brain damage, recovery, and physical brain repair warrant further investigation. In this dissertation, the role of the circadian clock in stroke outcome, and in models of brain repair will be examined. I hypothesize that circadian rhythmicity is involved not only in outcomes following brain damage, but may also be a significant contributor to neuroregeneration. Here, I show the effects of the time of day that a stroke occurs on behavioural and anatomical outcome in rats. This is followed by an investigation into the rhythmic expression of clock genes in regenerated medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and the effects that circadian dysfunction has on regeneration in both the neonatal MPFC, and adult subgranular zone of the dentate gyrus in mice.
