Dexamethasone prevents long-lasting learning impairment following neonatal hypoxic-ischemic brain insult in rats.

We examined for 18 weeks the effect of dexamethasone treatment on learning and memory impairment produced by hypoxic-ischemic stress at postnatal day 7 in rat in addition to brain histological study. Dexamethasone of 0.5 mg/kg was injected i.p. 4 h before hypoxic-ischemic stress, in which the left carotid artery was ligated followed by 2 h hypoxia (8% oxygen). Dexamethasone treatment improved behavior in each learning task: in choice reaction time tasks relating to the attention process, in 8-arm radial maze task examining working and reference memory, and in water maze task relating to reference memory. Improvement to the extent of the sham-control level was observed. Dexamethasone treatment also completely prevented histological brain damage. No adverse effect in learning and memory tests was observed in the animals treated with dexamethasone without hypoxic-ischemic stress. It is concluded that dexamethasone treatment is significantly effective in prevention not only of histological brain damage but also of learning and memory impairment occasioned by subsequent hypoxic-ischemic insult, warranting further clinical investigation.