BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose was to assess the prevalence of disorders of glucose metabolism and insulin resistance in Japanese ischemic stroke patients with no history of diabetes by performing 75-gram oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). METHODS We recruited 427 ischemic stroke patients (atherothrombotic infarction, n=220; lacunar infarction, n=125; cardioembolic infarction, n=82). OGT...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Ischemic tolerance has been extensively studied in experimental models of heart and brain ischemia. While there is some clinical evidence of ischemic tolerance in the heart, it is not known whether the same is true for the human brain. METHODS We conducted a retrospective case-control study in 148 stroke patients with and without antecedent TIA. RESULTS Despite no sig...

The approach to neuroprotection in stroke has relied mainly on exogenously administered drugs derived from research probing the cellular mechanisms of ischemic brain injury. This approach has had limited translational impact. Over 1000 putative neuroprotective agents have been developed, and over 100 agents have advanced to clinical trials. None, however, have shown clinical efficacy.1 By contr...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Activation of NMDA subtypes of glutamate receptors is implicated in cell damage induced by ischemia as well as for the establishment of ischemic tolerance after ischemic preconditioning in animal models. We investigated the contributions of NR2A- and NR2B-containing NMDA receptors to ischemic cell death and ischemic tolerance in a rat model of transient global ischemia. ...

Ischemic tolerance is an endogenous neuroprotective mechanism in brain and other organs, whereby prior exposure to brief ischemia produces resilience to subsequent normally injurious ischemia. Although many molecular mechanisms mediate delayed (gene-mediated) ischemic tolerance, the mechanisms underlying rapid (protein synthesis-independent) ischemic tolerance are relatively unknown. Here we de...

Sublethal ischemia leads to increased tolerance against subsequent prolonged cerebral ischemia in vivo. In the present study, we investigated the roles of the astrocytic glutamate (Glu) transporter GLT-1 in preconditioning (PC)-induced neuronal ischemic tolerance in cortical neuron/astrocyte co-cultures. Ischemia in vitro was simulated by subjecting cultures to both oxygen and glucose deprivati...

It is well established that the brain can be prepared to resist or tolerate ischemic stroke injury, and mitochondrion is a major target for this tolerance. The preparation of ischemic stroke tolerance can be achieved by three major approaches: ischemic conditioning, hypoxic conditioning and chemical conditioning. In each conditioning approach, there are often two strategies that can be used to ...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), an autoimmune disease of the liver, is marked by slow progressive destruction of bile ducts. These patients with PBC often undergo orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Ischemic bile duct lesion (IBDL) is a major source of morbidity and even mortality after OLT. Cirrhosis of the liver has a higher tolerance to ischemia than a normal liver, but ...

OBJECTIVE Mixed evidence exists regarding whether irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) patients show increased somatic pain perception compared with controls. The current study used a deep, tonic somatic pain stimulus (ischemic pain) to evaluate somatic hypersensitivity in IBS patients. METHODS A total of 27 diarrhea-predominant and 15 constipation-predominant IBS patients, and 29 controls particip...