Duan Y, Wu D, Huber M, et al. - In the present study, the researchers analyzed the hypothermic and neuroprotective efficiency of infusing cold saline directly into the internal jugular (IJ) vein and contrasted the impacts of IJ hypothermia to those achieved by intracarotid artery hypothermia in an ischemic stroke model. In rats using an intraluminal filament, the right middle cerebral artery was occluded. Hypothermia was caused immediately after reperfusion by infusing isotonic saline into the right IJ or right intracarotid over 30 minutes via a microcatheter. The authors discovered that infusion based on both IJ- and intracarotid cooled the brain robustly with limited rectal temperature effects. This brain cooling resulted in a significant reduction in infarct volumes 24 hours after reperfusion, as well as a decrease in proapoptotic protein expression cleaved Caspase-3 and increased antiapoptotic protein Bcl-2 expression. According to findings, IJ infusion provided a similar degree of hypothermia and neuroprotection after ischemic stroke vs intracarotid infusion. Given the ease of creating vascular access through the IJ vein and the strong neuroprotection that hypothermia offers, IJ brain cooling could be used as a promising future modality of hypothermic induction.