Ischemia-reperfusion Injury in the Brain: Mechanisms and Potential Therapeutic Strategies

Ischemia-reperfusion injury is a common feature of ischemic stroke, which occurs when blood supply is restored after a period of ischemia. Reperfusion can be achieved either by thrombolysis using thrombolytic reagents such as tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), or through mechanical removal of thrombi. Spontaneous reperfusion also occurs after ischemic stroke. However, despite the beneficial effect of restored oxygen supply by reperfusion, it also causes deleterious effect compared with permanent ischemia. With the recent advancement in endovascular therapy including thrombectomy and thrombus disruption, reperfusion-injury has become an increasingly critical challenge in stroke treatment. It is therefore of extreme importance to understand the mechanisms of ischemia-reperfusion injury in the brain in order to develop effective therapeutics. Accumulating experimental evidence have suggested that the mechanisms of ischemia-reperfusion injury include oxidative stress, leukocyte infiltration, platelet adhesion and aggregation, complement activation, mitochondrial mediated mechanisms, and blood-brain-barrier (BBB) disruption, which altogether ultimately lead to edema or hemorrhagic transformation (HT) in the brain. Potential therapeutic strategies against ischemiareperfusion injury may be developed targeting these mechanisms. In this review, we briefly discuss the pathophysiology and cellular and molecular mechanisms of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury, and potential therapeutic strategies. Ischemia-reperfusion Injury in the Brain: Mechanisms and Potential Therapeutic Strategies Lin L1,2, Wang X2 and Yu Z2* 1Institute of Molecular Pharmacology, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou 325035, PR China 2Departments of Radiology and Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA *Corresponding author: Zhanyang Yu, PhD, Neuroprotection Research Laboratory, Departments of Neurology and Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th Street, Room 2401, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA, Tel: 617-726-7830; E-mail: [email protected] Received May 19, 2016; Accepted June 16, 2016; Published June 20, 2016 Citation: Lin L, Wang X, Yu Z (2016) Ischemia-reperfusion Injury in the Brain: Mechanisms and Potential Therapeutic Strategies. Biochem Pharmacol (Los Angel) 5: 213. doi:10.4172/2167-0501.1000213 Copyright: © 2016 Lin L, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.