Effects of aliskiren on stroke in rats expressing human renin and angiotensinogen genes

Pre-treatment with angiotensin receptor blockers is known to improve neurological outcome after stroke. This study investigated for the first time, whether the renin inhibitor aliskiren has similar neuroprotective effects. Since aliskiren specifically blocks human renin, double transgenic rats expressing human renin and angiotensinogen genes were used. To achieve a systolic blood pressure of 150 or 130 mmHg animals were treated with aliskiren (7.5 or 12.5 mg/kg*d) or candesartan (1.5 or 10 mg/kg*d) via osmotic minipump starting five days before middle cerebral artery occlusion with reperfusion. Infarct size was determined by magnetic resonance imaging. mRNA of inflammatory marker genes was studied in different brain regions. The mortality of 33.3% (7 of 21 animals) in the vehicle group was reduced to below 10% by treatment with candesartan or aliskiren (p