Effect of ligustrazine on cerebral injury in LPS-induced septic shock rats / 中国病理生理杂志

ABSTRACT

AIM: To investigate the effect of ligustrazine (Lig) on cerebral injury in LPS-induced septic shock rats and to explore the underlying mechanism.METHODS: Wistar rats (n =48) were randomly divided into control group, LPS group and LPS +Lig treatment group.The rats in LPS group were randomly divided into 2 subgroups at time points of 6 h and 12 h.After ligustrazine treatment, the venous blood was collected by removal of eyeballs to detect the con-centration of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) using ELISA.The nitric oxide (NO) concentration in the homogenate of brain tissues was examined.The apoptosis in the hippocampus was analyzed by TUNEL staining.The protein expression of Bax and Bcl-2 was determined by Western blot.RESULTS: Ligustrazine inhibited the elevation of NSE and NO concentrations in LPS-induced septic shock rats.Furthermore, ligustrazine administration also attenuated LPS-induced increase in Bax ex-pression and decrease in Bcl-2 expression.CONCLUSION: Ligustrazine decreases the concentration of NSE and NO, and attenuates cerebral injury in LPS-induced septic shock rats.These effects may be related to the regulation of Bax and Bcl-2 expression.