**1. Introduction**

As in all aerobic eukaryotic cells, oxygen is essential for homeostasis in human cells. The in‐ terruption of blood flow to tissues results in an arrested oxygen supply and disrupts the bio‐ chemical reactions that ensure the smooth functioning, integrity and survival of the cells. The limited oxygen reserves that are dissolved in the interstitial fluid and are bound to he‐ moglobin, myoglobin and neuroglobin do not maintain efficient, long-term metabolism.[1,2] Lack of oxygen affects all functions within the cell. Table 1 summarizes the main cellular consequences of ischemia.

> (1) cellular acidosis; (2) loss of sarcoplasmic membrane potential; (3) cellular swelling; (4) cytoskeleton disorganization; (5) reduction of adenosine-5'-triphospate (ATP) and phosphocreatine is more than reduction in the energy substrates; (6) reduction of glutathione, of a-tocopherol; (7) increasing expression of leukocyte adhesion molecules; (8) secretion of cytokines/chemokines - Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α) - Interleukins (IL-) -1, 6, 8

**Table 1.** Major cellular consequences of ischemia

© 2013 Gourdin and Dubois; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
