Does niacin help the brain recover from stroke?

Niacin, also known as vitamin B3, is an essential nutrient; we need it in our diets to maintain good health. In large doses, niacin lowers low-density lipoprotein (“bad” cholesterol) and increases high-density lipoprotein (“good” cholesterol). The high-density lipoprotein is an important component of nerve membranes, and therefore affects nerve function and growth. Recovery from a stroke requires neurons in the brain to regrow and make new synaptic connections. These considerations led Distinguished Professor Mike Chopp, of the Department of Physics, and his colleagues to suggest the hypothesis that niacin can help the brain recover from stroke.

Chopp’s team—who perform their research in a laboratory at Henry Ford Hospital-- tested this hypothesis in rats that had suffered a stroke, giving a test group a high dose of niacin, and a control group no niacin. In the September issue of the journal Stroke, they report their results: Niacin Treatment of Stroke Increases Synaptic Plasticity and Axon Growth in Rats. One of the coauthors, Ben Buller, is a graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences: Medical Physics PhD program, and currently holds a predoctoral fellowship from the American Heart Association.