Tissue plasminogen activator disrupts the blood-brain barrier through increasing the inflammatory response mediated by pericytes after cerebral ischemia.
Clinical Study of Intravenous, Low-Dose Recombinant Tissue Plasminogen Activator for Acute Cerebral Infarction: Comparison of Treatment within 3 Hours versus 3-4.5 Hours.
All therapies except anti-thrombolytics (i.e., tissue plasminogen activator) and hypothermia have failed to reduce neuronal injury, neurological deficits, and mortality rates following cerebral ischemia, which suggests that development of novel therapies against stroke/cerebral ischemia are urgently needed.
<b>Results:</b><i>In vitro</i>, plasmin activity assays showed that the combination of t-PA with DHI at about 1:1.6 w/v ratio increased by almost 1.4-fold the plasmin-generating capability of t-PA. <i>In vivo</i> experiments, the results showed that the combination of Danhong injection (4 mL/kg) and t-PA (2.5 mg/kg) could extend the t-PA treatment time windows to 4.5 h. And the combination t-PA (2.5 mg/kg) with DHI (4 mL/kg) ameliorated neurological score, cerebral infarction, brain edema, brain hemorrhage, and BBB disruption.