
doi: 10.25560/39362
handle: 10044/1/39362
Stroke kills 15 million people a year and causes disabilities in many more millions who survive. Most strokes are caused by a blood clot, yet only seven percent of patients qualify for early pharmacological clot removal. Damage is frequently exacerbated even as blood reperfuses an ischaemic brain region, through a concomitant inflammatory response to the damaged tissue. Following the continual failure in clinical trials of drugs intended to tackle both initial excitotoxic cell death and pro-‐inflammatory mechanisms during ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R), this thesis is premised on enhancing 'pro-‐resolving' anti-‐inflammatory pathways. Formyl Peptide Receptor 2/the lipoxin receptor (FPR2/ALX; mouse orthologue Fpr2/3) and two of its ligands, Lipoxin A4 (LXA4) and Annexin A1 (AnxA1), are part of an endogenous anti-‐ inflammatory system. They actively resolve inflammation through a reduction in characteristic leukocyte-‐endothelial (L-‐E) interactions, while promoting the production of anti-‐inflammatory cytokines and non-‐phlogistic phagocytosis of leukocytes already within tissue. Chapters 3-‐5 of this thesis describe the development of mouse model of global cerebral I/R (5 min ischaemia/40 min or 2 h reperfusion) through which L-‐E interactions are assessed using intravital microscopy. Substantial reductions in L-‐E interactions following treatment with FPR2/ALX ligands (AnxA1 N-‐ terminal peptide AnxA1Ac2-‐26 and LXA4 analogue 15-‐epi-‐LXA4) are demonstrated along with variations in cytokine levels (MCP-‐1, IL-‐6 and IL-‐10) after 2 h of reperfusion. The reductions are shown to be variable with respect to the duration of reperfusion, concentration of 15-‐epi-‐LXA4 and the time of treatment administration. In addition, the effects are abrogated by co-‐treatment with FPR antagonists, which independently cause a highly pronounced acute inflammatory response in the model. Chapters 6 and 7 provide further investigation into the role of FPRs in stroke and inflammation, through chemotaxis studies on human monocytes (from stroke patients and healthy controls) and through use of an FPR1-‐target MRI contrast agent in mice following lipopolysaccaride-‐induced inflammation. Overall, the data provide evidence that Fpr2/3 ligands are able to reduce inflammation following cerebral I/R, that an FPR2/ALX-‐targeted drug may therefore be effective in human stroke, and that its optimal use is likely to be administration time, dose and FPR2/ALX ligand-‐dependent.
570, 610
570, 610
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 0 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
