The protein tPA is best known for its role in breaking down blood clots that form in blood vessels and the heart. However, tPA is also found in nerve cells in the brain, where its function has not been clearly determined. Now, Manuel Yepes and colleagues, at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, have generated data in mice indicating that tPA protects nerve cells in a region of the brain known as the hippocampus from death caused by a local reduction in blood flow, an event that occurs during stroke. Further analysis indicated several of the other molecules involved in the tPA-mediated protective process, leading the authors to propose two models for the protective effect of tPA in the hippocampus, both of which have implications for the development of therapeutic strategies to prevent nerve cell death in the clinic.
TITLE: Tissue-type plasminogen activator is a neuroprotectant in the mouse hippocampus
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Manuel Yepes
Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Phone: 404.712.8358; Fax: 404.727.3728; E-mail: myepes@emory.edu .
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/41722?key=99b7f213162c089e91a3
Journal of Clinical Investigation