Neuroprotection of GST, an extract of traditional Chinese herb, against ischemic brain injury induced by transient brain ischemia and reperfusion in rat hippocampus.

In this study, we investigated the effect of GST, an extract of Chinese traditional herb, on transient brain ischemia/reperfusion-induced neuronal cell death. Immunoblotting was used to detect the phosphorylation of MLK, JNK and c-jun. Transient (15 minutes) brain ischemia was induced by the four-vessel occlusion in Sprague-Dawley rats. GST was administrated to the SD rats 20 minutes before ischemia or 1 hour after ischemia. Our data showed that the pretreatment of GST could inhibit phosphorylation of MLK, JNK and c-jun. Moreover, GST showed potent neuroprotective effects on ischemic brain damage in vivo and administration of it 1 hour after ischemia also achieved the protective effects. These results indicate that GST has a prominent neuroprotection action against brain ischemic damage and provides a promising therapeutic approach for ischemic brain injury.