HYPERHOMOCYSTEINEMIA ACCELERATES STROKE-INDUCED BRAIN INJURY VIA PROMOTING ENDOTHELIAL ACTIVATION AND INFLAMMATORY CELL INFILTRATION: THE ROLE OF ICAM1-MEDIATED NEUTROPHIL AND MONOCYTE INFILTRATION

Abstract

Background: Epidemiology, clinical trials and meta-analysis studies have established that Hyperhomocysteinemia (HHcy) is an independent risk factor for stroke. However, the exact molecular mechanism underlying the HHcy-induced risk of stroke is unclear. Our study aims to investigate the role of HHcy in stroke. Methods and results: We established a mice mode of focal ischemic stroke, termed transient Middle Cerebral Artery Occlusion (tMCAO) and conducted surgery on a mice model of HHcy (plasma homocysteine level ~150μM), in which a Zn2+ inducible human cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) transgene was introduced to circumvent the neonatal lethality of the CBS gene deficiency (Tg-hCBS Cbs-/- mice). Fourteen-week-old male mice were used in the experiment. A student’s t-test was used for the evaluation of the statistical significance between the two groups. For the comparison across multiple groups, one-way ANOVA was used. We found that HHcy 1) increased the infarction volume from 42.3 ± 4.9 mm