Exploring ischemia-induced vascular lesions and potential pharmacological intervention strategies

Structural changes in vessels under the influence of ischemia play an important role in the pathogenesis of many diseases, most important of which are stroke and myocardial infarction or myocardial insult. Over the years, information has been gathered, which implicate a role for ischemic vascular changes in the pathogenesis of crush-syndrome, atherosclerosis and other vascular diseases. When blood vessels are damaged they become unresponsive to a stimulus, which normally elicits vasodilatation and can lead to intraluminal thrombosis and ischemic events. The aim of this review is to explore the structural changes seen in vessels affected by ischemia reperfusion injury. With ischemia, the development of observable changes to vascular structure is multifactorial. One key factor is reperfusion ischemic injury. Moreover, the duration of the ischemic event is an important factor when determining both the prognosis and the type of morphological change that is observable in affected vessel walls. In this regard, the deleterious progression of blood flow impairment and its severity depends on the specific organ involved and the type of tissue affected. Further, there are regional differences within affected tissues and the degree of microvascular injury is well correlated with differences in the nature and severity of the ischemic event. Any method aimed at preventing and treating ischemic reperfusion injuries in vessels, based on these investigations, should likewise be able to decrease the early signs of brain, cerebrovascular and heart injury and preserve normal cellular architecture.