Attenuation of temporary focal cerebral ischemic injury in the mouse following transfection with interleukin-1 receptor antagonist.

Abstract The proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) is thought to play an important role in the stimulation of the inflammatory response following ischemia and reperfusion. This study investigated the inflammatory effect of IL-1β during transient focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion in the mouse transduced with the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) gene. An adenoviral vector encoding, either the human IL-1ra gene (AdRSVIL-1ra) or the LacZ gene (AdRSVlacZ) or normal saline, were injected into the right lateral ventricles of adult CD-1 mice ( n =96). Five days later, the mice received 1 h temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMACAO) followed by 23 h reperfusion. Cerebral blood flow (CBF), infarct volume, blood–brain barrier (BBB) permeability, and the number of intracellular adhesion molecule-1 positive vessels were measured to determine the effect of IL-1β during postischemic reperfusion. Infarct volume in the AdRSVIL-1ra-transduced mice was markedly reduced compared to the AdRSVlacZ-transduced and saline-injected mice (36.0±5.3 mm 3 vs. 60.0±6.2 mm 3 , 69.5±6.3 mm 3 , after 23 h of reperfusion, n =6–8 per group, p n =6–8 per group, p