Deciphering the Blood-Brain Barrier Damage in Stroke: Mitochondrial Mechanism.

Stroke is a complex vascular and neurological syndrome that can lead to death and disability. About 15 million people worldwide and 800,000 people in the United States suffer stroke each year . On average, in the U.S. every 40 seconds someone has a stroke and every 4 minutes someone dies from a stroke. This medical emergency has very limited treatments, and causes serious health and economic burdens in the United States and globally. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) is composed of highly specialized cerebrovascular endothelial cells, seals brain tissue from the circulating blood, and prevents blood, bacteria or toxins from reaching the central nervous system (CNS). In acute ischemic stroke, BBB is disrupted, and blood solutes penetrate into the CNS parenchymal extracellular space then cause cerebral edema . Although much has been observed in this stroke-induced brain edema, such as inflammatory infiltration, releasing of chemokines and cytokines, much less has the mechanism of BBB disruption been understood.