Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Promotes Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation after Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Mice

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a physical treatment applied during recovery after intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). With in vivo and in vitro assays, the present study sought to investigate how rTMS influences neural stem cells (NSCs) after ICH and the possible mechanism. Following a collagenase-induced ICH, adult male C57BL/6 J mice were subjected to rTMS treatment every 24 h for 5 days using the following parameters: frequency, 10 Hz; duration, 2 s; wait time, 5.5 s; 960 trains (500 µV/div, 5 ms/div, default setting). Brain water content and neurobehavioral score were assessed at days 1, 3, and 5 after ICH. The proliferation and differentiation of NSCs were observed using immunofluorescence staining for Nestin, Ki-67, DCX, and GFAP on day 3 after ICH, and rTMS treatment with the same parameters was applied to NSCs in vitro. We found that rTMS significantly reduced brain edema and alleviated neural functional deficits. The mice that underwent ICH recovered faster after rTMS treatmen...