Pravastatin reduces microvascular basal lamina damage following focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion

Background and Purpose: Thrombolysis with rt-PA is the only licensed drug for acute stroke treatment. But it also causes a ten times higher risk of cerebral bleedings. Experimentally, the prerequisite for the development of hemorrhagic complications is a microvascular basal lamina damage. Pravastatin is beneficial for the microvasculature. The aim of this study was to determine if pravastatin pre-treatment ameliorates microvascular basal lamina damage following focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion. Methods: Using the suture model, we subjected 12 rats to 3h of focal ischemia and 24h of reperfusion, another 6 anim…