Stroke and cardiac cell death: Two peas in a pod

A close pathological link between stroke brain and heart failure may exist. Here, we discuss relevant laboratory and clinical reports demonstrating neural and cardiac myocyte cell death following ischemic stroke. Although various overlapping risk factors exist between cerebrovascular incidents and cardiac incidents, stroke therapy has largely neglected the cardiac pathological consequences. Recent preclinical stroke studies have implicated an indirect cell death pathway, involving toxic molecules, that originates from the stroke brain and produces cardiac cell death. In concert, previous laboratory reports have revealed a reverse cell death cascade, in that cardiac arrest leads to ischemic cell death in the brain. A deeper understanding of the crosstalk of cell death pathways between stroke and cardiac failure will facilitate the development of novel treatments designed to arrest the global pathology of both diseases thereby improving the clinical outcomes of patients diagnosed with stroke and heart failure.