Lactate potentiates angiogenesis and neurogenesis in experimental intracerebral hemorrhage

Abstract

Brain hemorrhage: Lactate aids in recovery After a blood vessel bursts in the brain, lactate, a metabolic intermediary, accumulates around the bleeding site to increase new blood vessels and neurons. A team led by Tao Tang and Yang Wang at Central South University in Changsha, China, experimentally induced brain hemorrhage in rats and examined the effects of lactate in the brain. They showed that this metabolic signaling molecule protected against cell death and increased expression of growth factors involved in blood vessel formation and neural regeneration. Inhibiting lactate blocked these effects, while infusing exogenous lactate into the rat brains enhanced them. The findings suggest that lactate promotes angiogenesis and neurogenesis in experimental intracerebral hemorrhage.