Protective effects of methanol extract of Acori graminei rhizoma and Uncariae Ramulus et Uncus on ischemia-induced neuronal death and cognitive impairments in the rat.

Acori graminei rhizoma (AGR) and Uncariae Ramulus et Uncus (URE) have been widely used as herbal medicine against ischemia. In order to investigate whether AGR and URE influenced cerebral ischemia-induced neuronal and cognitive impairments, we examined the effect of AGR and URE on ischemia-induced cell death in the striatum, cortex and hippocampus, and on the impaired learning and memory in the Morris water maze and radial eight-arm maze in rats. After middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2 h, rats were administered saline, AGR or URE (100 mg/kg, p.o.) daily for three weeks, followed by their training to the tasks. In the water maze test, the animals were trained to find a platform in a fixed position during 6 days and then received a 60-s probe trial in which the platform was removed from the pool on the 7th day. In the radial eight-arm maze, animals were tested six times per week for 1 week. Rats with ischemic insults showed impaired learning and memory on the tasks. Pretreatment with AGR and URE produced a significant improvement in escape latency to find the platform in the Morris water maze and in the number of choice errors in the radial arm maze test. Consistent with behavioral data, pretreatments with AGR and URE significantly reduced ischemia-induced cell death in the hippocampal CA1 area. These results demonstrated that AGR and URE have a protective effect against ischemia-induced neuronal loss and learning and memory damage. Our studies suggest that AGR and URE may be useful in the treatment of vascular dementia.