Gene expression in peripheral blood monocytes to predict ischemic stroke

Cerebral ischemia triggers a powerful inflammatory reaction involving both peripheral leukocytes and brain resident cells. Recent evidence indicates that their differentiation into a variety of functional phenotypes contributes to both tissue injury and repair. However, the temporal dynamics and diversity of post-stroke immune cell subsets remain poorly understood. To address these limitations, we performed a longitudinal single-cell transcriptomic study of both brain and mouse blood to obtain a composite picture of brain-infiltrating leukocytes, circulating leukocytes, microglia and endothelium diversity over the ischemic/reperfusion time...

BACKGROUND: This study identified early immune gene responses in peripheral blood associated with 90-day ischemic stroke (IS) outcomes. METHODS: Peripheral blood samples from the CLEAR trial IS patients at ≤ 3 h, 5 h, and 24 h after stroke were compared to vascular risk factor matched controls. Whole-transcriptome analyses identified genes and networks associated with 90-day IS outcome assessed using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS)...

There are no biomarkers that differentiate cardioembolic from large-vessel atherosclerotic stroke, although the treatments differ for each and approximately 30% of strokes and transient ischemic attacks have undetermined etiologies using current clinical criteria. We aimed to define gene expression profiles in blood that differentiate cardioembolic from large-vessel atherosclerotic stroke. Peripheral blood samples were obtained from healthy controls and acute ischemic stroke patients (<3, 5, and 24 h). RNA was purified, labeled, and applied to Affymetrix Human U133 Plus 2...

CONTEXT: Myocardial infarction (MI) and ischemic stroke are thought to be caused by matrix digestion by metalloproteinases (MMPs) leading to rupture of atherosclerotic plaques. Production of macrophage MMP-2 and MMP-9 is induced by cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) and prostaglandin E(2) synthesis. Although COX-2 expression may be genetically determined, the relation between COX-2 polymorphisms and the risk of MI and stroke is unclear. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between the -765G-->C polymorphism of the COX-2 gene and clinically evident plaque rupture...