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Nature Medicine 12, 390 - 391 (2006)
doi:10.1038/nm0406-390

Remodeling after stroke

Berislav V Zlokovic1

  1. The author is in the Frank P. Smith Laboratories for Neuroscience and Neurosurgical Research, Department of Neurosurgery, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. e-mail: berislav_zlokovic@urmc.rochester.edu


A promising approach to treating ischemic stroke, inhibition of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), may need to be rethought. Previous work suggested that inhibitors of MMPs could protect the brain, but now it seems that such inhibitors might contribute to damage (pages 441–445).


Shortly after an ischemic stroke, matrix metallo-proteinases (MMPs) seem to contribute to subsequent brain damage by proteolitically degrading neurovascular matrix, which may result in brain hemorrhage and neuronal apoptosis. In some experimental situations, inhibition of MMPs protects against such damage, which has created interest in MMP inhibitors as drugs for stroke.

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