 Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest CA is a leading public health problem causing nearly one third of a million deaths annually in the US, accounting for half of all cardiovascular deaths and surpassing deaths from stroke, heart failure, and breast and lung cancer combined. Twenty to fifty percent of CA patients pts can be resuscitated initially but many die before hospital discharge or suffer permanent neurologic damage. Therapeutic hypothermia TH improves survival and neurological outcomes. Despite aggressive, targeted post arrest management, including TH, approximately 50 of pts die before leaving the hospital due to global ischemia-reperfusion injury IRI known as the post arrest syndrome, 1 which is a sepsis-like state characterized by elevated markers of cellular inflammation and injury. It is believed that TH works by decreasing the bodys basal metabolic rate BMR and attenuating the systemic inflammatory response SIR. However, specific triggers of the intense pro-inflammatory response are unclear. This gap in knowledge must be closed to identify targeted therapy to decrease IRI and improve outcomes. 