Effect of procyanidin on neural cell apoptosis and expression of Caspase-3 following cerebral ischemic reperfusion injury in rats

Abstract

Objective To study the effect of procyanidin on neural cell apoptosis and the expression of Caspase-3 of cerebral ische-mia reperfusion(I/R) injury in rats. Methods 40 rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, which were sham operated group, I/R group, low dose procyanidin treated group and high dose procyanidin treated group. The focal middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) model was made by suture-occluded method. After MCAO for 90min following 24h of reperfusion, neural cell apoptosis and the expression of caspase-3 was investigated with TUNEL and immunohistochemistry. HE staining and Trc staining was also used. Result Compared with sham opera-ted group, neural cell apoptosis rate and the expression of caspase-3 were increased at the 24th hour of reperfusion in the ischemic territory(P < 0.05) . Compared with I/R group, low and high dose procyanidin treated group reduced expression of caspase-3 and neural cell apopto-sis rate in a dose-dependent manor (P <0.05). The change of ischemic impairment in procyanidin treated group was less than that of I/R group, and the change of high dose procyanidin treated group was less than that of low dose procyanidin treated group. Compared with that of I/R group, cerebral infarction volume of procyanidin treated group was decreased in a dose-dependent manor (P < 0.05). Conclusion Procyanidin may reduce cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injure by reducing expression of caspase-3 and neural cell apoptosis. Key words: Proanthocyanidins/PD ; Brain ischemia; Reperfusion injury/PC ; Caspases/BI/DE; Neurons/DE; Apoptosis