physiologic responses to its environment is important for survival. Certain organs respond to sub-lethal exposures to hypoxia or ischemia by a variety of physiologic mechanisms. Some of these mechanisms induce a greater tolerance to a subsequent exposure to hypoxia or ischemia. This phenomenon is described as ischemic or hypoxic preconditioning.1,2 It is nature’s “what doesn’t kill you makes yo...

Introduction: Development of brain edema following focal cerebral ischemia exacerbates primary ischemic injury. Blood brain barrier (BBB) opening is an important part of edema named as vasogenic brain edema. In this study, quantitative alterations of BBB permeability is experimentally evaluated using transient focal cerebral ischemia in the rat. Methods: Two groups of male rats (ischemic and sh...

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...

OBJECTIVES We examined whether enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) improves myocardial ischemia, exercise tolerance and cardiac function in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). BACKGROUND Enhanced external counterpulsation reduces angina and improves exercise tolerance in patients with CAD. Some objective improvements of ischemia by EECP have been reported, but they should be co...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Hetereothermic mammals tolerate hypoxia during euthermy and torpor, and evidence suggests this tolerance may extend beyond hypoxia to cerebral ischemia. During hibernation, CA1 hippocampal neurons endure extreme fluctuations in cerebral blood flow during transitions into and out of torpor as well as reductions in cerebral blood flow during torpor. In vitro studies likewis...

There is accumulating evidence, that ischemic preconditioning - a non-damaging ischemic challenge to the brain - confers a transient protection to a subsequent damaging ischemic insult. We have established bilateral common carotid artery occlusion as a preconditioning stimulus to induce early ischemic tolerance to transient focal cerebral ischemia in C57Bl6/J mice. In this video, we will demons...

Hibernation torpor provides an excellent model of natural tolerance to ischemia. We have previously shown that massive global SUMOylation occurs during hibernation torpor in ground squirrels. We have also shown that overexpression of Ubc9, SUMO-1, or SUMO-2/3 provides protection against ischemic damage in cell lines and cortical neurons exposed to oxygen/glucose deprivation, and in mice exposed...