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 ischemic preconditioning. In the present study, we developed a murine model of cerebral preconditioning using several common strains of adult mice. Animals 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%, and 64% in C57Bl/6, 129SvEv, and Swiss-Webster ND4 mice relative to their respective untreated controls. This non-invasive murine model of ischemic tolerance should be useful for elucidating the molecular basis of this protection using transgenic and knockout mice.