Stroke mostly occurs in elderly people and patient outcomes after stroke are highly influenced by age. A better understanding of the causes of stroke in the elderly might have important practical implications not only for clinical management, but also for preventive strategies and future health-care policies. In this Review, we explore the evidence from both human and animal studies relating to the effect of old age-in terms of susceptibility, patient outcomes and response to treatment-on ischemic stroke. Several aging-related changes in the brain have been identified that are associated with an increase in vulnerability to ischemic stroke in the elderly. Furthermore, risk factor profiles for stroke and mechanisms of ischemic injury differ between young and elderly patients. Elderly patients with ischemic stroke often receive less-effective treatment and have poorer outcomes than younger individuals who develop this condition. Neuroprotective agents for ischemic stroke have been sought for decades but none has proved effective in humans. One contributing factor for this translational failure is that most preclinical studies have used young animals. Future research on ischemic stroke should consider age as a factor that influences stroke prevention and treatment, and should focus on the management of acute stroke in the elderly to reduce the incidence and improve outcomes in this vulnerable group.

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Knee pain is commonly seen in orthopedic and rehabilitation outpatient clinical settings, and in the aging population. Bursitis of the knee joint, especially when the volume of the synovial fluid is large enough, can compress and distend the nearby soft tissues, causing pain in the knee joint. Out of all the bursae surrounding the knee joint, supra-patellar bursitis is most often associated with knee pain. Treatment strategies in managing supra-patellar bursitis include the aspiration of joint synovial fluid and then followed by steroid injection into the bursa. When supra-patellar bursitis is caused by degenerative disorders, the concept of viscosupplementation treatment may be effective by injecting hyaluronic acid into the bursa. However, the rheology or the changes in the concentrations of proteins (biomarkers) that are related to the development of bursitis in the synovial fluid is virtually unexplored. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the concentration changes in the synovial fluid total protein amount and individual proteins associated with supra-patellar bursitis using the Bradford protein assay and western immunoglobulin methods. A total of 20 patients were divided into two groups with 10 patients in each group. One group received the high molecular weight hyaluronic acid product of Synvisc Hylan G-F 20 and the other group received the low molecular weight hyaluronic acid product of Hya-Joint Synovial Fluid Supplement once per week injection into the bursa for a total of 3 weeks. Significant decreases in the synovial fluid total protein concentrations were observed after the second dosage of high molecular weight hyaluronic acid injections. Apolipoprotein A-I, interleukin 1 beta, alpha 1 antitrypsin, and matrix metalloproteinase 1 proteins revealed a trend of decreasing western immunoblotting band densities after hyaluronic acid injections. The decreases in apolipoprotein A-I and interleukin 1 beta protein band densities were significant in the high molecular weight hyaluronic acid injection group. Transthyretin, complement 5, and matrilin 3 proteins revealed a trend of increasing western immunoblotting band densities after hyaluronic acid injections. Transthyretin revealed significant increases in protein band densities in both the high and low molecular weight hyaluronic acid injection groups. This study may provide the rationale for targeting several biomarkers associated with lipid transport, inflammation, and anti-aging as possible disease modifying therapies for the treatment of supra-patellar bursitis and even degenerative joint disorders.

Biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders are potentially present in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and can be detected using proteomic technologies. Since CSF is high in salt and low in protein, its study by proteomic methods requires appropriate sample preparation. In this study, we applied four different sample treatments to the same ovine CSF sample. Precipitation with acetone or using a 2-D Clean-Up Kit (GE Healthcare BioSciences, Little Chalfont, UK) preserved more proteins, and produced more gel spots than spin columns from Sigma and Bio-Rad. A 53-kDa spot, identified by MS/MS as transthyretin (TTR) tetramer, was not detected in samples treated with the 2-D Clean-Up Kit, though it was always present on all gels prepared using the other three methods. Western immunoblotting confirmed the low recovery of tetrameric TTR by the 2-D Clean-Up Kit and showed that the tetrameric form of TTR predominated in ovine but not in rat CSF. In one ovine CSF sample haemoglobin was found, indicating blood contamination. We conclude that acetone precipitation is a simple and efficient way to prepare ovine CSF for 2-DE. The use of the 2-D Clean-Up Kit leads to the disappearance of tetrameric TTR only from ovine CSF proteome.