Involvement of glutamate transporter-1 in neuroprotection against global brain ischemia-reperfusion injury induced by postconditioning in rats

Abstract

Ischemic post conditioning refers to several transient reperfusion and ischemia cycles after an ischemic event and before a long duration of reperfusion. The procedure produces neuroprotective effects. The mechanisms underlying these neuroprotective effects are poorly understood. In this study, we found that most neurons in the CA1 region died after 10 minutes of ischemia and is followed by 72 hours of reperfusion. However, brain ischemic post conditioning (six cycles of 10 s/10 s reperfusion/re-occlusion) significantly reduced neuronal death. Significant up-regulation of Glutamate transporter-1 was found after 3, 6, 24, 72 hours of reperfusion. The present study showed that ischemic post conditioning decreases cell death and that up regulation of GLT-1 expression may play an important role on this effect. © 2010 by the authors.