MFGE8 inhibits inflammasome-induced IL-1β production and limits postischemic cerebral injury

Get your researcher after this to see what human clinical trials can do to limit the neuronal cascade of death.
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/65167?key=9c368b2173b91a4a0e01

Results and Discussion

MFGE8 reduces postischemic cerebral tissue damage and inflammatory response. We first compared Mfge8^–/– mice and control WT littermates in a model of focal cerebral ischemia. We found that infarct size was significantly larger in Mfge8^–/– mice compared with their controls (Figure 1A), a noteworthy augmentation of 38% which was abrogated by supplementation of Mfge8^–/– with recombinant murine MFGE8 (rMFGE8) (Figure 1B). These results clearly indicate that endogenous MFGE8 is required for protection against excessive postischemic cerebral damage. We also found that supplementation of WT mice (Figure 1C) with rMFGE8 induced a significant reduction of infarct volume, in agreement with the recently reported beneficial effect of recombinant human MFGE8 in a model of cerebral injury in rats