Effects of neuroprotectant cocktails on focal cerebral ischemia in rats

AIM:To investigate whether cocktail theraphy combined with of neuroprotectants may have more advantages over single agents in treating focal cerebral ischemic cascade.METHODS:With the use of suture occlusin techique,the right middle cerebral artery in rats was occluded.Tirty minutes later,Frutose 1,6 diphosphate(FDP) (50 mg/kg,n=20), MK 801(1 mg/kg,n=20) and N acetylcystein (NAC)(150 mg/kg,n=20) were singly or combinantly infused intraperitoneally.At the same time the cocktail treated group(n=20)were infused the above agents combinationly and the control group(n=20)were infused normal saline intraperitoneally.6 hours and 24 hours after focal cerebral ischemia the animals were weighted and neurologically assessed on 5 point scale.The animals were killed,brains were stained 2,3,5 triphenyltetrazolium chloride for assessment of the infarct volume and then embedden onto slides with paraffin for morphological assessment and terminal transferase dUTP nick ending labeling(TUNEL )were carried out for apoptosis and immunohistochemistry were carried out to investigate the changes in bcl 2.RESULTS:All Neuroprotectants decreased volume of infarction (P< 0.05,F test).While cocktail treated group showed more distinct decrease than other groups(P< 0.05,F test).FDP treated group did not decrease the apoptosis of the neurons and did not increase the bcl 2 expression as well.MK 801 treated group,NAC treated group and cocktail treated group significantly decreased the apoptosis of the neurons and increased the bcl 2 expression (P< 0.05,F test).With cocktail treated group showing more distinct effect (P< 0.05,F test).CONCLUSION:Cocktail may be more effective than single neuroprotectant in this modle.