Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability in the United States, making research on rehabilitation imperative. Stroke rehabilitation typically focuses on recovery of the impaired limb, although this process is tedious. Compensatory use of the intact limb after stroke is more efficient, but it is known to negatively impact the impaired limb. Exercise may help with this problem; research has shown that exercise promotes neuronal growth and prevents cell death. This study used a mouse model to investigate if post-stroke exercise could prevent deterioration of the function of the impaired limb despite compensatory training of the intact limb. Results showed that mice that exercised, in combination with intact limb training, demonstrated improved functional outcome compared to mice that received no training or compensatory limb training only. These findings suggest that exercise can prevent the deterioration of impaired limb functional outcome that is typically seen with intact limb use.

中风是美国长期残疾的主要原因，因此必须进行康复研究。中风康复通常着重于肢体受损的恢复，尽管这一过程很繁琐。中风后完整肢体的补偿性使用更为有效，但已知会对受损肢体产生负面影响。运动可能有助于解决这个问题。研究表明，运动促进神经元生长并防止细胞死亡。这项研究使用小鼠模型来研究中风后运动是否可以预防受损肢体的功能恶化，尽管对完整肢体进行了补偿性训练。结果表明，与未接受完全肢体训练或仅接受肢体代偿训练的小鼠相比，与完整肢体训练结合进行运动的小鼠表现出更好的功能结局。