Ischemic Postconditioning Attenuates Bilateral Renal Ischemia-induced Cognitive Impairments.

Acute kidney injury may be associated with numerous complications in different regions of brain, as it may alter the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, accumulate the toxins, decreased blood flow to the brain, increased risk of encephalopathy, higher mental dysfunctions like delirium, stroke, memory and thinking problems (dementia) in people with kidney failure. It has been demonstrated that the most common causes of mortality in acute kidney injury is brain dysfunction. Therefore, discovering new treatments can decrease the brain injuries and help the patients with kidney dysfunction to have a higher quality of life. Ischemic postconditioning, which refers to a series of brief ischemia and reperfusion cycles applied immediately at the site of the ischemic organ after reperfusion, results in reduced injuries induced by ischemia. The purpose of the current study was designed to investigate whether ischemic postconditioning exerts neuroprotective effects against brain dysfunctions induced by renal ischemia in rats. Results of this study demonstrated that acute kidney injury triggers distant organ dysfunction and leads to cognitive and balance dysfunction 24h after induction of renal ischemia and ischemic postconditioning protects the brain as a remote organ against cognitive dysfunction from the injury induced by renal ischemia.