MONDAY, Aug. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Inhibiting tissue-type plasminogen activators could be useful in preventing brain injury in infants with oxygen or blood-flow deprivation, according to research published July 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Dianer Yang, Ph.D., of the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and colleagues analyzed data from a rat model of cerebral hypoxia-ischemia. The researchers gave intracerebroventricular injections of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 to rat pups following carotid ligation and 90 minutes of hypoxia.

The researchers found that the treatment substantially reduced tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) and urokinase-type plasminogen activator activity. At 24 hours, it also blocked matrix metalloproteinase-9 induction and reduced blood-brain barrier permeability from the hypoxia-ischemia. The use of the treatment also was associated with less later brain edema, axonal degeneration, and cortical cell death. The authors further note that plasminogen activator inhibitor treatment led to less brain tissue loss after a week of recovery.

"In conclusion, we suggest that future studies examine whether infants diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy or at a high risk of cerebral palsy have greater levels of tPA and plasmin in the brain or the cerebrospinal fluid. If so, inhibition of the parenchymal plasminogen activator system may be a promising new therapy to overcome this devastating perinatal disorder," Yang and colleagues write.

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