Molecular Alterations and Effects of Acute Dehydroepiandrosterone Treatment Following Brief Bilateral Common Carotid Artery Occlusion: Relevance to Transient Ischemic Attack

Publication date: Available online 13 May 2019Source: NeuroscienceAuthor(s): Marina Zaric, Dunja Drakulic, Milorad Dragic, Ivana Gusevac Stojanovic, Natasa Mitrovic, Ivana Grkovic, Jelena MartinovicAbstractTransient ischemic attack (TIA) represents brief neurological dysfunction of vascular origin without detectable infarction. Despite major clinical relevance characterization of post-TIA molecular changes using appropriate experimental model is lacking and no therapeutic agent has been established yet. Neurosteroid dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) arose as one of the candidates for cerebral ischemia treatment but its effects on TIA-like condition remain unknown. Seeking to animal model applicable for investigation of molecular alterations in mild ischemic conditions such as TIA, 15 min bilateral common carotid artery occlusion with 24 h reperfusion was performed to induce ischemia/ reperfusion (I/R) injury in adult male Wistar rats. Additionally, effects of 4 h post-operative DHEA treatment (20 mg/kg) were investigated in physiological and I/R conditions in hippocampus (HIP) and prefrontal cortex (PFC). The study revealed absence of sensorimotor deficits, cerebral infarcts and neurodegeneration along with preserved HIP and PFC overall neuronal morphology and unaltered malondialdehyde and reduced glutathione level following I/R and/or DHEA treatment. I/R induced nitric oxide burst in HIP and PFC was accompanied with increased neuronal nitric oxide synthase protein level ...
Source: Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research