This led researchers to wonder if ways could be found to promote such rewiring in human stroke patients.
The first of these conditions to evaluate EPO as a potential therapy was human stroke [69].
Motor, sensory and cognitive deficits are common impairments observed in human stroke as well as in animal stroke models.
Mimicking all aspects of human stroke in one animal model is not possible since ischemic stroke is itself a very heterogeneous disorder.
It is not helpful to find a compound that reduces stroke size in animal models, but requires prestroke use or shows highly toxic side-effects that would not be tolerated in human stroke victims.
Conclusion: The results suggested that this reversible monkey model resembled a human stroke and should offer a reasonable alternative to craniotomy and the extrinsic ligation of the MCA in the laboratory investigation of focal reversible cerebral ischemia.
Studies on animal models have shown that apoptosis plays a role in acute ischemic stroke, but the clinical significance of apoptosis in human stroke has not been well established.
As local production of EPO is generally suppressed following injury, administration of exogenous EPO has been a successful therapeutic approach in preclinical and clinical studies, for example, following ischemia reperfusion and toxin-induced renal injuries, and in human stroke.
Here, we review evidence that physiological changes (reperfusion, hyperglycaemia, hypothermia and blood pressure) produce comparable changes in outcome in both animal models and human stroke patients, which indicates that the models should identify clinically effective neuroprotective agents.
The protective effect of PARP inhibition is "striking" and makes "a very strong case" for examining the role of PARP in human stroke, says Thomas Jacobs, a neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland.
"Using this optogenetic technique could be helpful in improving our understanding of the mechanisms driving stroke recovery, however it is too early to tell exactly how this research might be developed for the treatment of human stroke patients".
