A naturally occurring substance shrank the size of stroke-induced lesions in the brains of experimental mice -- even when administered as much as 12 hours after the event, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have shown. The substance, alpha-B-crystallin, acts as a brake on the immune system, lowering levels of inflammatory molecules whose actions are responsible for substantial brain damage above and beyond that caused by the initial oxygen deprivation of a stroke. The finding, which will be published online July 25 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is of great potential significance.
