Blood transfusion protects the brain from stroke injury

Weakness permeates one side of the body and utters slurring. I have a stroke. And you need to rush to the emergency room.

The doctor will replace your blood with the blood of a healthy person who has never suffered stroke..

This blood exchange reduces damage to your brain and there is no neurological deficit from a stroke.

This is not just a hopeful idea. It’s a potential breakthrough Stroke therapy Based on mouse studies by neuroscientists at the University of West Virginia.

In this study, a team of researchers led by Xuefang “Sophie” Ren, a research associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience, found that blood replacement therapy rescues the mouse brain from ischemic injury. Their article is Natural communication..

“We have demonstrated that removing some of the blood from a stroked subject and replacing it with blood from a subject who has never had a stroke can significantly improve the outcome of that stroke. That’s right,” Len said. Director of WVU Experimental Stroke Core.

This study is considered the first study to show that blood replacement therapy leads to improved stroke outcomes in humans.

Most strokes (ischemia) Blood supply Obstruction of the brain usually results from blockage of an artery to the brain.

Although no single drug therapy is known for stroke, the only FDA-approved treatment for ischemic stroke is tPA or tissue plasminogen activator, which dissolves thrombi and improves blood flow. However, tPA should usually be given within 3 hours of a stroke.

Ren’s study found that blood transfusions could extend beyond that limited time frame (up to 7 hours) and still have a positive effect. It can be seen that just replacing 20% ​​of the blood in the mouse significantly reduced brain damage. The average adult has about 1.5 gallons of blood in his body.

Co-authors of the study include postdoctoral researcher and stroke core surgeon Heng Hu, and James Simpkins, director of the Center for Basic and Translational Stroke Research and Professor of Neuroscience.

Old and new

“The idea is Immune reaction It happens after a stroke,” Simpkins said.

Researchers explained that after a stroke, a patient’s blood composition changes, causing brain damage and body reactions. Neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that help guide the immune system’s response, play a role in increasing the level of an enzyme called MMP-9.

The study concluded that blood replacement therapy eliminated inflammatory cells and reduced neutrophil and MMP-9 levels after stroke.

“The immune system is unaware of much of what is happening during a stroke,” Simpkins said. “So the neutrophils go to the brain and try to get rid of the damage that is happening. But too much for the brain, the same neutrophils release MMP-9, which exacerbates the damage.

“What we have learned is that stroke is not just a cerebrovascular event. It is a systemic event. Both the brain and the body receive a signal that something is happening. brain And Immune system Responding to try to help, it actually exacerbates the result. Therefore, removing blood and replacing it with blood from someone who has never had a stroke gives good results. “

Currently, blood-based therapies are emerging as a treatment to combat aging and combat neurodegenerative diseases, researchers say.

He said that blood replacement therapy is now a proven strategy to target the pathological systemic response to stroke and may reduce mortality in stroke patients.

“Blood certainly saves our brain and lives from stroke damage,” she said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 795,000 Americans have strokes each year and 140,000 die from stroke.

“In an ideal situation, a person with a stroke would appear in a ruby ​​(Memorial) or another hospital,” Simpkins said. “They go through the right protocol. We get rid of their stroke blood and blood It will suppress this immune response they are experiencing. If that works, it’s good for all of us. ”