Dexamethasone prevents cerebral infarction without affecting cerebral blood flow in neonatal rats.

Abstract

Despite ischemic levels of cerebral blood flow, pretreatment with dexamethasone prevents cerebral damage in neonatal rats. Instead of improving local cerebral perfusion, dexamethasone presumably acts via peripheral or central glucocorticoid receptors to produce some alteration in the brain that decreases its susceptibility to hypoxia-ischemia.