Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE-: Remote ischemic conditioning is cardioprotective in myocardial infarction and neuroprotective in mechanical occlusion models of stroke. However, there is no report on its therapeutic potential in a physiologically relevant embolic stroke model (embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion) in combination with intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA). METHODS-: We tested remote ischemic perconditioning therapy (RIPerC) at 2 hours after embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion in the mouse with and without intravenous tPA at 4 hours. We assessed cerebral blood flow up to 6 hours, neurological deficits, injury size, and phosphorylation of Akt (Serine) as a prosurvival signal in the ischemic hemisphere at 48 hours poststroke. RESULTS-: RIPerC therapy alone improved the cerebral blood flow and neurological outcomes. tPA alone at 4 hours did not significantly improve the neurological outcome even after successful thrombolysis. Individual treatments with RIPerC and intravenous tPA reduced the infarct size (25.7% and 23.8%, respectively). Combination therapy of RIPerC and tPA resulted in additive effects in further improving the neurological outcome and reducing the infarct size (50%). All the therapeutic treatments upregulated phosphorylation of Akt in the ischemic hemisphere. CONCLUSIONS-: RIPerC is effective alone after embolic middle cerebral artery occlusion and has additive effects in combination with intravenous tPA. RIPerC may be a simple, safe, and inexpensive combination therapy with intravenous tPA.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2794-2799 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Stroke |
Volume | 43 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 2012 |
Keywords
- IV tPA
- embolic stroke
- remote ischemic conditioning
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Neurology
- Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
- Advanced and Specialized Nursing