The function of microglia in the brain parenchyma is not fully understood. Occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) and reperfusion caused behavioral dysfunction with massive neuronal loss in the rat cerebral cortex and striatum. When exogenous microglia were microinjected into the intracerebroventricle (i.c.v.) during MCA occlusion, focal ischemia-induced behavioral dysfunction was signif...

Background: The role of nitric oxide (NO) of endothelial or neuronal origins in cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injuries are far from being settled, extending from being important to not having any role at all. Objective: To investigate the role of NO of endothelial and neuronal origins in ischemia/reperfusion injuries in focal cerebral ischemia, L-NAME, a non selective NO synthase inhibitor ...

The objective of the present study was to examine the role of the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT(1)-R) in the diabetes-aggravated oxidative stress and brain injury observed in a rat model of combined diabetes and focal cerebral ischemia. Diabetes was induced by an injection of streptozotoxin (STZ; 55 mg/kg iv) at 8 wk of age. Two weeks after the induction of diabetes, some animals received ...

To determine the molecular mechanism of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, we examined the microRNA (miRNA) expression profile in rat cortex after focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury using miRNA microarrays and bioinformatic tools to systematically analyze Gene Ontology (GO) function classifications, as well as the signaling pathways of genes targeted by these differentially expressed...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a major mediator of angiogenesis and a strong vascular permeability factor. VEGF is known to open the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and induce cerebral edema. Experimental studies of VEGF antagonism have shown it reduces cerebral edema after ischemia, indicating its potential for prevention of secondary brain damage. We examined th...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) is an attractive procedure that has been used frequently in cerebral ischemia. However, depending on the model of cerebral ischemia and HBO protocol, different and conflicting results were obtained in the past. This study was undertaken to reevaluate the effects of single administration of HBO in 2 models of acute cerebral ischemia: transient ...