Ischemic preconditioning alters the epigenetic profile of the brain from ischemic intolerance to ischemic tolerance.

ABSTRACT: Ischemic preconditioning is an innate neuroprotective mechanism in which a sub-injurious ischemic exposure increases the brain's ability to withstand a subsequent, normally injurious ischemic insult. Part of ischemic preconditioning neuroprotection stems from an epigenetic reprogramming of the brain to a phenotype of ischemic tolerance, which results in a gene expression profile different from that observed in the non-injured and ischemia-injured brains. Such neuroprotective reprograming, activated by ischemic preconditioning, requires specific changes in DNA accessibility coordinated with activation of transcriptional activator and repressor proteins, which allows for expression of specific neuroprotective proteins despite a general repression of gene expression. In this review we examine

SUBMITTER: Thompson JW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3805868 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature