Postischemic spontaneous hyperthermia is not a major aggravating factor for neuronal damage following repeated brief cerebral ischemia in the gerbil.

Brief and non-lethal cerebral ischemia produces most severe neuronal damage when such ischemia is induced repeatedly at 1-h intervals. We examined whether spontaneous postischemic hyperthermia is an aggravating factor for the cumulative damage following repeated ischemia in the gerbil. We maintained body and cranial temperature at normothermia throughout the initial reperfusion period, but could not observe an amelioration of histopathological brain damage following two 2-min bilateral carotid artery occlusions at a 1-h interval as compared to hyperthermic conditions. The results suggest that postischemic hyperthermia is not a major aggravating factor for the cumulative damage following repeated ischemic insults.