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Inflammatory cytokines are potential modulators of infarct progression in acute ischaemic stroke, and are therefore possible targets for future treatment strategies. Cytokine studies in animal models of surgically induced stroke may, however, be influenced by the fact that the surgical intervention itself contributes towards the cytokine response. Community-dwelling domestic dogs suffer from spontaneous ischaemic stroke, and therefore, offer the opportunity to study the cytokine response in a noninvasive set-up. The aims of this study were to investigate cytokine concentrations in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in dogs with acute ischaemic stroke and to search for correlations between infarct volume and cytokine concentrations. Blood and CSF were collected from dogs less than 72 h after a spontaneous ischaemic stroke. Infarct volumes were estimated on MRIs. Interleukin (IL)-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10 and tumour necrosis factor in the plasma, CSF and brain homogenates were measured using a canine-specific multiplex immunoassay. IL-6 was significantly increased in plasma (P=0.04) and CSF (P=0.04) in stroke dogs compared with healthy controls. The concentrations of other cytokines, such as tumour necrosis factor and IL-2, were unchanged. Plasma IL-8 levels correlated significantly with infarct volume (Spearman's r=0.8, P=0.013). The findings showed increased concentrations of IL-6 in the plasma and CSF of dogs with acute ischaemic stroke comparable to humans. We believe that dogs with spontaneous stroke offer a unique, noninvasive means of studying the inflammatory processes that accompany stroke while reducing confounds that are unavoidable in experimental models.

Original publication

DOI

10.1097/wnr.0000000000000728

Type

Journal article

Journal

Neuroreport

Publication Date

02/2017

Volume

28

Pages

134 - 140

Addresses

aDepartment of Veterinary Clinical and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg bCentre of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus cDepartment of Neurobiology Research, Institute of Molecular Medicine dBRIDGE (Brain Research - Inter-Disciplinary Guided Excellence), Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark eDepartment of Neurology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark fExperimental Neuroinflammation Laboratory, Department of Experimental Medical Science, BMC, Lund University, Lund, Sweden gDavies Veterinary Specialists, Hitchin hFitzpatrick Referrals, Surrey iDepartment of Pharmacology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK *Shared senior authorship.