The brain is the most sensitive organ to hypoxia in the human body. Hypoxia in the brain will lead to damage to local brain tissue. When the blood supply of ischemic brain tissue is restored, the damage will worsen, that is, cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a gaseous signal molecule and a novel endogenous neuroregulator. Indeed, different concentrations of H2S have different effects on neurons. Low concentration of H2S can play an important protective role in cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury by inducing anti-oxidative stress injury, inhibition of inflammatory response, inhibition of cell apoptosis, reduction of cerebrovascular endothelial cell injury, regulation of autophagy, and other ways, which provides a new idea for clinical diagnosis and treatment of related diseases. This review aims to report the recent research progress on the dual effect of H2S on brain tissue during cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury.
Keywords: Apoptosis; Cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury; Hydrogen sulfide; Inflammatory response; Oxidative stress.
© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.