RESUMO
Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of edaravone on learning and memory abilities and expressing of choline acetyl transferase(ChaT) and high affinity choline transporter(ChT) in vascular dementia (VaD) rats.Methods 30 rats were randomly divided into sham operation group,model group and edaravone treatment group.The sham operation group with bilateral carotid arteries were isolated only,but did not block the blood flow and not inject drugs.VaD model was established by two-vessel method in model group and edaravone treatment group.The three groups underwent the Morris water maze test and immunohistochemistry to detect the expression of ChaT and ChT in hippocampus.Conclusion The first day,Morris water maze test showed that the model group escape latency ((92.6 ± 8.1) s) was significantly greater than the sham operation group ((71.9 ± 5.1) s) and edaravone treatment group ((71.2 ± 4.9) s),the differences were statistically significant (P ＜0.05).ChaT hippocampal gray value in the model group((89.05 ±9.42)) was higher than that in sham operation group(67.44 ± 6.36) and edaravone treatment group(62.35 ± 4.69),the differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).ChT hippocampal gray value in the model group(145.33 ± 3.79) was lower than that in sham operation group (164.21 ± 2.85) and edaravone treatment group (162.45 ± 4.72),the differences were statistically significant (P ＜ 0.05).Results Edaravone may be effective in improving learning and memory and protecting neurons in rats,and improve the expression of ChaT,but decrease the expression of ChT in hippocampal.