Cerebral ischemia in adult rodents leads to the production of several types of lesions in the genomic DNA, followed by the activation of the damage-response indicator Gadd45. Our purpose was to investigate the structural changes that occur in chromatin DNA and repair processes after ischemic injury in neonatal brain. Neonatal ischemia was induced by the permanent left MCA occlusion in association with 1 h occlusion of the left common carotid artery in 7-day-old Wistar pups. Oligonucleosome fragments that are recognized as the characteristic DNA ladder was observed in a delayed fashion. Double-strand breaks result in high molecular weight fragments of 50- and 300-kbp as demonstrated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and visualized by the TUNEL assay at 24 h of recovery. In contrast, DNA single-strand breaks, shown by the use of DNA polymerase I-mediated biotin-dATP nick translation were not so abundant. Gadd45 immunoreactivity was sequentially increased in vulnerable neurons in the infarct (4 to 24 h) and in sublethally injured neurons in the penumbra (24-48 h). Taken together, these findings suggest that Gadd45 responds to DNA damage following neonatal ischemia. Furthermore, repairing processes seem to be more active in the penumbra and therefore Gadd45 could have also a protective role in cerebral ischemia.