Figure 9.

Summary of findings. Our results show that diabetes does not affect cortical and striatal vascularization in female diabetic rats, and there is no vasoregression in these regions after cerebral ischemia. Current findings indicate disease and sex-specific effects of DFX on control and diabetic female and male animals, as well as on ferroptosis signaling pathways in male and female microvascular endothelial cells. These suggest that iron chelation may provide a novel therapeutic strategy in the prevention of PSCI via preservation of gliovascular integrity and improvement of endothelial cell survival in females with diabetes and via the inhibition of vasoregression and microglial activation in males with diabetes. DFX, deferoxamine; PSCI, poststroke cognitive impairment.