Dr. Namura’s laboratory studies cerebrovascular functions and their sequelae after stroke. He is interested in the mechanism of so-called “French paradox”: the incidence of coronary heart disease in France is much lower, when compared with other developed countries with comparable dietary intake. Moderate long-term red wine consumption is reversely correlated with the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, and dementia. Therefore, it is suspected that polyphenols that are plentiful in grape skin and seeds contribute to the beneficial effect of red wine. Recently, Dr. Namura and his colleagues demonstrated in mice that resveratrol, one type of polyphenol, attenuated brain tissue injury caused by cerebral artery occlusion, i.e. ischemic stroke ( Inoue H, Jiang X-F, Katayama T, Osada S, Umesono K,Namura S. Resveratrol and fenofibrate require PPAR a expression to limit brain infarct resulting from permanent focal ischemia in mice. Neurosci. Lett. 2003;352:203 – 206) . Such a beneficial effect could not be seen in mice that were deficient in the gene for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) alpha. PPAR alpha is a ligand-dependent transcription factor and seems to play a crucial role in lipid metabolism. In addition, they discovered that resveratrol is a strong activator of PPAR alpha. These findings suggest that PPAR alpha activation may be important to prevent stroke as well as coronary heart disease and dementia. Dr. Namura’s laboratory is currently investigating how PPAR alpha activation protects the brain against ischemic stroke.