Abstract
Ischemic conditioning, the application of a mild ischemic stimulus to an ischemia-sensitive structure like the heart or brain either before (preconditioning) or after (postconditioning) its exposure to a lethal ischemic insult, is known to switch on endogenous protective mechanisms. However, most studies of its neuroprotective effect in the central nervous system (CNS) have focused on ischemic damage or related conditions like hypoxia, while its potential in treating other neural diseases remains uncertain. In particular, the recent discovery of remote ischemic postconditioning whereby mild ischemia applied to a region remote from the target after the main ischemic insult also confers protection offers an attractive paradigm to study its potential in other types of neural injury. Retinal ganglion cells damaged by optic nerve transection undergo extensive cell death. However, application of a series of mild ischemic/reperfusion cycles to the hind limb (limb remote ischemic postconditioning) at 10 min or 6 h after optic nerve cut was found to promote ganglion cell survival at 7 days post-injury, with the 10 min postconditioning still exerting protection at 14 days post-injury. Concomitant with the increased ganglion cell survival, 51 % more ganglion cells expressed the small heat shock protein HSP27, when remote ischemic postconditioning was performed at 10 min post-injury, as compared to the sham conditioning group. Our results highlight the potential of using remote ischemic postconditioning as a noninvasive neuroprotective strategy in different CNS disorders like spinal cord and traumatic brain injury.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Belforte N, Sande PH, de ZN, Fernandez DC, Silberman DM, Chianelli MS, Rosenstein RE (2011) Ischemic tolerance protects the rat retina from glaucomatous damage. PLoS One 6:e23763
Brown IR (2007) Heat shock proteins and protection of the nervous system. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1113:147–158
Cho EYP, Wong WK (2005) Transient induction of heat shock protein 27 in axotomized retinal ganglion cells, and their sustained up-regulation in regenerating ganglion cells. ARVO 2005 Annual Meeting189/B163
Cui Q, Yip HK, Zhao RC, So KF, Harvey AR (2003) Intraocular elevation of cyclic AMP potentiates ciliary neurotrophic factor-induced regeneration of adult rat retinal ganglion cell axons. Mol Cell Neurosci 22:49–61
Dreixler JC, Shaikh AR, Alexander M, Savoie B, Roth S (2010) Postischemic conditioning in the rat retina is dependent upon ischemia duration and is not additive with ischemic preconditioning. Exp Eye Res 91:844–852
Fernandez DC, Bordone MP, Chianelli MS, Rosenstein RE (2009) Retinal neuroprotection against ischemia–reperfusion damage induced by postconditioning. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci 50:3922–3930
Fernandez DC, Sande PH, Chianelli MS, na Marcos HJ, Rosenstein RE (2011) Induction of ischemic tolerance protects the retina from diabetic retinopathy. Am J Pathol 178:2264–2274
Fitch MT, Silver J (2008) CNS injury, glial scars, and inflammation: inhibitory extracellular matrices and regeneration failure. Exp Neurol 209:294–301
Gidday JM (2006) Cerebral preconditioning and ischaemic tolerance. Nat Rev Neurosci 7:437–448
Krueger-Naug AM, Emsley JG, Myers TL, Currie RW, Clarke DB (2002) Injury to retinal ganglion cells induces expression of the small heat shock protein Hsp27 in the rat visual system. Neuroscience 110:653–665
Latchman DS (2005) HSP27 and cell survival in neurones. Int J Hyperthermia 21:393–402
Lim SY, Hausenloy DJ (2012) Remote ischemic conditioning: from bench to bedside. Front Physiol 3:27
Murry CE, Jennings RB, Reimer KA (1986) Preconditioning with ischemia: a delay of lethal cell injury in ischemic myocardium. Circulation 74:1124–1136
Pignataro G, Meller R, Inoue K, Ordonez AN, Ashley MD, Xiong Z, Gala R, Simon RP (2008) In vivo and in vitro characterization of a novel neuroprotective strategy for stroke: ischemic postconditioning. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 28:232–241
Ren C, Gao X, Niu G, Yan Z, Chen X, Zhao H (2008) Delayed postconditioning protects against focal ischemic brain injury in rats. PLoS One 3:e3851
Ren C, Yan Z, Wei D, Gao X, Chen X, Zhao H (2009) Limb remote ischemic postconditioning protects against focal ischemia in rats. Brain Res 1288:88–94
Roth S (2004) Endogenous neuroprotection in the retina. Brain Res Bull 62:461–466
Sun F, He Z (2010) Neuronal intrinsic barriers for axon regeneration in the adult CNS. Curr Opin Neurobiol 20:510–518
Sun XC, Xian XH, Li WB, Li L, Yan CZ, Li QJ, Zhang M (2010) Activation of p38 MAPK participates in brain ischemic tolerance induced by limb ischemic preconditioning by upregulating HSP 70. Exp Neurol 224:347–355
Sun J, Tong L, Luan Q, Deng J, Li Y, Li Z, Dong H, Xiong L (2012) Protective effect of delayed remote limb ischemic postconditioning: role of mitochondrial K(ATP) channels in a rat model of focal cerebral ischemic reperfusion injury. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 32:851–859
Wang JY, Shen J, Gao Q, Ye ZG, Yang SY, Liang HW, Bruce IC, Luo BY, Xia Q (2008) Ischemic postconditioning protects against global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion-induced injury in rats. Stroke 39:983–990
Williams KL, Rahimtula M, Mearow KM (2005) Hsp27 and axonal growth in adult sensory neurons in vitro. BMC Neurosci 6:24
Xing B, Chen H, Zhang M, Zhao D, Jiang R, Liu X, Zhang S (2008) Ischemic postconditioning inhibits apoptosis after focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in the rat. Stroke 39:2362–2369
Zhao H, Ren C, Chen X, Shen J (2012) From rapid to delayed and remote postconditioning: the evolving concept of ischemic postconditioning in brain ischemia. Curr Drug Targets 13:173–187
Zhou Y, Fathali N, Lekic T, Ostrowski RP, Chen C, Martin RD, Tang J, Zhang JH (2011) Remote limb ischemic postconditioning protects against neonatal hypoxic–ischemic brain injury in rat pups by the opioid receptor/Akt pathway. Stroke 42:439–444
Acknowledgments
This study was supported by the General Research Fund CUHK463309 of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (E.Y.P. Cho), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81171154, O. Sha), and a postgraduate studentship of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (X. Liu). The authors are grateful to Ms. Anny Cheung for the technical help provided.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, X., Sha, O. & Cho, E.Y.P. Remote Ischemic Postconditioning Promotes the Survival of Retinal Ganglion Cells after Optic Nerve Injury. J Mol Neurosci 51, 639–646 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-013-0036-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-013-0036-2