Memantine decreases apoptosis and attenuates the activation of caspase-3 and MDA release in rats with ischemia-reperfusion injury

To investigate the effects of memantine on neuron apoptosis and the expression of Caspase-3 and malonaldehyde (MDA) during cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat. 135 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 3 groups: sham operation group, cerebral ischemia-reperfusion model group and memantine intervention group. The changes of cell morphology and the expression of caspase-3 in cerebral cortex neurons at 12h, 24h, and 48h after ischemia-reperfusion were observed by Haematoxylin Eosin (HE) and immunohistochemistry staining respectively. The expression of caspase-3 activity and MDA levels at different time points were detected by spectrophotometer. Meanwhile, the apoptosis in situ in the CA1 region of hippocampus of the rats were investigated with TdT-mediated dUTP nicked labeling (TUNEL) method. Results show that in memantine intervention group, the expression levels of caspase-3 and MDA in ischemia-reperfusion injury region increased, in comparison with sham-operated group (p=0.00), while lower than that of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion model group (p =0.00). Caspase-3 activity remarkably increased in ischemia-reperfusion brain in rats in a time-depended manner. The number of TUNEL positive cells in the CA1 region of hippocampus in the memantine treated rats (7.00 +/- 2.04) and model rats (11.57 +/- 2.64) were significantly increased compared with the sham operation controls (1.57 +/- 4.72) (p =0.00), while the number of TUNEL positive cells in the memantine treated rats decreased as compared with that of the model rats (p =0.00). Suggesting that mamantine may probably have the function of neuroprotection in rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury by suppressing the expression of caspase-3 activity and MDA and inhibiting the apoptosis of pyramidal neurons in the CA1 region of hippocampus in ischemia-reperfusion rats. [Sun Shilei, Zhao Yanpo, Xu Haowen, Qin Jie. Memantine decreases apoptosis and attenuates the activation of caspase-3 and MDA release in rats with ischemia-reperfusion injury. Life Science Journal. 2011;8(2):281-285] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com.