Cerebral protection by hypoxic preconditioning in a murine model of focal ischemia-reperfusion

Sublethal periods of hypoxia or ischemia can induce adaptive mechanisms to protect against subsequent lethal ischemic insults in a process known as is chemic preconditioning. In the present study, we developed a murine model o f cerebral preconditioning using several common strains of adult mice. Anim als were exposed to sublethal hypoxia (11% oxygen for 2 h) 48 h prior to a 90 min period of transient focal middle cerebral artery occlusion, induced by an intraluminal filament; injury was assessed 24 h later by TTC staining . Infarct volume in hypoxia-preconditioned animals was reduced 46%, 58%, an d 64% in C57B1/6, 129SvEv, and Swiss-Webster ND4 mice relative to their res pective untreated controls. This noninvasive murine model of ischemic toler ance should be useful for elucidating the molecular basis of this protectio n using transgenic and knockout mice. NeuroReport 12:1663-1669 (C) 2001 Lip pincott Williams & Wilkins.