How Long Are Reperfusion Therapies Beneficial for Patients after Stroke Onset? Lessons from Lethal Ischemia Following Early Reperfusion in a Mouse Model of Stroke

Ischemic stroke caused by cerebral artery occlusion induces neurological deficits because of cell damage or death in the central nervous system. Given the recent therapeutic advances in reperfusion therapies, some patients can now recover from an ischemic stroke with no sequelae. Currently, reperfusion therapies focus on rescuing neural lineage cells that survive in spite of decreases in cerebral blood flow. However, vascular lineage cells are known to be more resistant to ischemia/hypoxia than neural lineage cells. This indicates that ischemic areas of the brain experience neural cell death but without vascular cell death. Emerging evidence suggests that if a vascular cell-mediated healing system is present within ischemic areas following reperfusion, the therapeutic time window can be extended for patients with stroke. In this review, we present our comments on this subject based upon recent findings from lethal ischemia following reperfusion in a mouse model of stroke.