In the 1940s, young Brazilian physiologist Aristides Leão was the first to discover both spreading depression and non-spreading depression of activity in the rabbit brain. He was also the first to describe the propagating slow potential change, normal neurovascular coupling to spreading depolarization and a phenomenon that was later to be called spreading convulsion by van Harreveld and Stamm. Leão coined the two ground breaking translational theories from bench to bedside in this field: 1) the spreading depression theory of the migraine aura, and 2) the connection between migraine aura and stroke based on spreading depolarization as their common pathophysical key element.
The Brazilian physiologist discovered spreading depression of activity in the rabbit brain and was the first to describe the slow potential change that identifies spreading depolarization, the hyperemic response to spreading depolarization, and spreading convulsion.
Leão AAP Spreading depression of activity in the cerebral cortex
Neurophysiol 7: 359–390, 1944
Leão AAP Further observations on the spreading depression of activity in the cerebral cortex
Neurophysiol 10: 409–414, 1947
Born in the Netherlands, van Harreveld spent his entire career at the California Institute of Technology where his earliest studies were on the innervation of crustacean muscles. He was the first to record a large slow potential change in the asphyxic spinal cord, and linked this to neuronal mass depolarization. He also found that spreading depolarization is the principal mechanism of the cytotoxic edema in gray matter based on electron microscopy, and that it is associated with massive release of glutamate.
Van Harreveld A, Stamm JS. Spreading cortical convulsions and depressions
Neurophysiol 16: 352-366 (1953)
Van Harreveld A, Stamm JS. Cerebral asphyxiation and spreading cortical depression
Am J Physiol. 173(1): 171-175 (1953)
Van Harreveld A, Malhotra SK. Extracellular space in the cerebral cortex of the mouse
J Anat 101(2): 197-207 (1967)
In a time when women in science were rare, Bernice Grafstein was trained as an electrophysiologist and developed the potassium hypothesis of cortical spreading depression - a work that has become classic in this field. She subsequently shifted her research focus to central nervous system development and regeneration, and is known for her work on intracellular protein transport in both normal and regenerating neurons, as well as other forms of molecular signaling among various cell types in the brain.
Grafstein B. Mechanism of spreading cortical depression
Neurophysiol. 19(2): 154-171 (1956).
Grafstein B. Subverting the hegemony of the synapse: complicity of neurons, astrocytes, and vasculature in spreading depression and pathology of the cerebral cortex
Brain Res Rev. 66(1-2): 123-32 (2011).
In 2002, Anthony Strong and colleagues were the first to apply a new methodological approach that provided evidence of spreading depolarizations in the human brain following traumatic injury or intracerebral hemorrhage. In the following year, a group of interested investigators launched the CoOperative Studies on Brain Injury Depolarizations (COSBID) to further advance these findings and to use robust invasive recording technology for the detection of spreading depolarizations. The mutual aim was to produce a core data set for four model diseases: subarachnoid hemorrhage, intracerebral hemorrhage, traumatic brain injury and malignant hemispheric stroke. Since then, COSBID has produced remarkable progress in the translation of knowledge on spreading depolarizations from bench to bedside. It has become clear that spreading depolarizations are a fundamental component of the diseases under investigation, occurring in up to 80% of patients monitored. Meeting at least once annually, COSBID investigators have worked together to develop clinical protocols, improve monitoring methods, and develop analysis techniques.
Meet the COSBID group at the International Conference on Spreading Depolarizations (iCSD) where they share and discuss their latest findings in the field.
Strong AJ et al. Spreading and synchronous depressions of cortical activity in acutely injured human brain Stroke 33: 2738-2743 (2002)
Fabricius M et al. Cortical spreading depression and peri-infarct depolarization in acutely injured human cerebral cortex Brain 129, 778-790 (2006).
Dreier JP et al. Delayed ischaemic neurological deficits after subarachnoid haemorrhage are associated with clusters of spreading depolarizations Brain 129: 3224-3237 (2006)
Dohmen C et al. Spreading depolarizations occur in human ischemic stroke with high incidence Ann Neurol 63: 720-728 (2008)
Dreier JP et al. Cortical spreading ischaemia is a novel process involved in ischaemic damage in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage Brain. 132: 1866-1881 (2009)
Hartings JA et al. Spreading depolarizations have prolonged direct current shifts and are associated with poor outcome in brain trauma Brain. 134(Pt 5): 1529-1540 (2011)
Drenckhahn C et al. Correlates of spreading depolarization in human scalp electroencephalography Brain. 135(Pt 3): 853-868 (2012)
Somjen GG Mechanisms of spreading depression and hypoxic spreading depression-like depolarization Physiological Reviews 81: 1065-1096 (2001)
Dreier JP The role of spreading depression, spreading depolarization and spreading ischemia in neurological disease Nat Med 17: 439-447 (2011)
Lauritzen M et al. Clinical relevance of cortical spreading depression in neurological disorders: migraine, malignant stroke, subarachnoid and intracranial hemorrhage, and traumatic brain injury J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 31: 17-35 (2011)
Eikermann-Haerter K, et al. Spreading depression and the clinical correlates of migraine Rev Neurosci. 24(4) 353-363 (2013)
Dreier JP, Reiffurth C The Stroke-Migraine Depolarization Continuum Neuron. 86(4): 902-22 (2015)
Ayata C, Lauritzen M Spreading Depression, Spreading Depolarizations, and the Cerebral Vasculature Physiol Rev 95(3), 953-93 (2015).
Hartings JA et al. The continuum of spreading depolarizations in acute cortical lesion development: Examining Leao’s legacy J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2016 Jan 1
Dreier JP et al. Recording, analysis, and interpretation of spreading depolarizations in neurointensive care: Review and recommendations of the COSBID research group J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2016 Jan 1
COSBID is an international group broadly concerned with discovering mechanisms and treatments for secondary brain damage that occurs after acute injury following stroke or trauma. Befitting a translational mission, basic and clinical scientists from diverse backgrounds meet at least once annually and work together to develop clinical protocols, improve monitoring methods, and develop analysis techniques.
COSBID welcomes new collaborators and partners in its pursuit to understand and develop treatments for spreading depolarizations.
For more information, visit www.cosbid.org
List of meetings
2003 Copenhagen, Denmark
2004 London, UK
2005 Washington DC, USA
2006 Cologne, Germany
2006 Atlanta, USA
2006 Rotterdam, Netherlands
2007 Berlin, Germany
2007 Cologne, Germany
2008 Cambridge, England
2008 Washington DC, USA
2009 Heidelberg, Germany
2010 Barcelona, Spain
2011 Cincinnati, USA
2012 London, UK
2013 Innsbruck, Austria
2014 Boston, USA
2015 Helsingør, Denmark
2016 Albuquerque, USA
2017 Berlin, Germany
Active COSBID centers
Berlin
Heidelberg
Cologne
Bonn
Frankfurt
London
Copenhagen
Innsbruck
Barcelona
Antwerpen
Ube, Japan
Cincinnati, Ohio USA
Boston, Massachusetts USA
Albuquerque, New Mexico USA