RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Huangiao granule is pure Chinese drugs pharmaceu-tics, which can eliminate heat by purgatingfu-organs, clear unconscious-ness and stop endogenous wind as well as promote blood flow and removeblood stasis etc.OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of huangjiao granule on apoptosis ofneurocytes in rat models with middle cerebral arterial occlusion, and probeinto the possible mechanism of huangjiao granule in the treatment of acutecerebral infarction.DESIGN: Complete randomized grouping design, control animal experi-ment.SETTING: Department of Neurology, Affiliated Hospital of TraditionalChinese Medicine Combined with Western Medicine, Tongji Medical Col-lege of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.MATERIALS: The experiment was conducted in the Central Laboratory,Hubei College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Sixty old Wistar rats aged22 months were selected. After 3-day-feeding for adaptability, rats wererandomized into 6 groups according to body mass: Normal control group,model group, nimodipine gorup, 10 g/kg huangjia ogranule group and 5 g/kghuangjiao granule group with 10 rats in each group.METHODS: ①Rats were made into cerebral ischemic models with mid-dle cerebral arterial occlusion method. Thirty minutes before modeling, ratsin the 10, 5, 2.5 g/kg huangjiao granule (main gredients were radix et rhi-zoma rhei, cornu bubali etc. provided by Manufacturing Laboratory ofWuhan First Hospital with the batch number of 021120) groups respec-tively received gastric perfusion of 1, 0.5, 0.25 g/mL huangjiao water so-lution containing crude drug at the dose of 10, 5, 2.5 g/kg with each rats perfused once; Rats in the nimodipine group received gastric perfusion of1 mg/mL nimodipine water solution, containing crude drug at the dose of 10 mg/kg with each rats perfused once; Rats in the model group and normal control group received gastric perfusion of normal saline at the dose of 10 mL/kg with each rats perfused once. ② Apoptotic stainning sections in situ were observed under light microscope, 5 fields were observed under high power (20×10). Observed the number of mean positive cells of each highpower field, and then caculated the percentage of apoptosis. Histologic changes of local and peripheral ischemic cortexes were observed under light microscope. Changes of ultramicrostructure of cells in cerebral cortexes of rats were observed under electron microscope. ③Differences of measurement data were compared with F test and Q test.MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Morphologic effects of huangjiao granule on apoptotic rate of neurocytes in brain tissues of old rats with middle cerebral arterial occlusion (MACO) and cells in cerebral cortexes.RESULTS: A total of 60 Wistar rats were involved in the analysis of results. ①Number of apoptotic positive cells in brain tissues and apoptotic rate in rats of model group were significantly higher than those in the normal control group (P ＜ 0.01); Those in each huangjiao granule groups and nimodipine group were obviously lower than those in the model group (P ＜ 0.01); Differences in numbers of apoptotic positive cells in brain tissues and apoptotic rates in rats of 10 g/kg huangiao group and nimodipine groupwere not obvious (P ＜ 0.05). Number of apoptotic positive cells in brain tissues and apoptotic rate in rats of 10 g/kg huangjiao granule group were markedly lower than those in the 5, 2.5 g/kg huangjiao granule groups (P ＜ 0.05, 0.01).②Observation with light microscope and electron microscope showed that there were obvious apoptosis in local cells of brain tissues in rats of model group, which can significantly ameliorate by haungjiao granule.CONCLUSION: Huangjiao granule has some antagonistic effects on acute ischemic apoptosis of neurocytes, which may be one of the possible mechanisms of huangjiao granule in the treatment of acute cerebral infarction.