Cerebral ischemia, a leading cause of morbidity, disability, and mortality worldwide, is a critical condition in which impaired blood flow leads to oxygen deprivation and damage to nervous tissue. A key factor contributing to both cerebrovascular accidents and the development of reperfusion syndrome is changes in blood rheology. Cerebral ischemia is accompanied by significant hemorheological changes that exacerbate the disease. These include increased blood viscosity, increased red blood cell and platelet aggregation, and decreased red blood cell deformability. These changes lead to decreased blood flow, particularly in microcirculation, and promote thrombus formation, thereby increasing the volume of the ischemic lesion. The severity of these disturbances correlates with the severity of neurological disorders. Our study aims to investigate changes in blood rheology during cerebral ischemia/reperfusion and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment. Using osmotic gradient ektacytometry, we studied the deformability of rat erythrocytes during cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in the presence of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which plays a key role in protecting cells from hypoxia, ischemia, and oxidative stress. Our results suggest that IGF-1 positively influences the reduced deformability of erythrocytes during ischemia/reperfusion, restoring it to control values.
Nikitina et al. (Thu,) studied this question.