The protective effects and potential mechanism of Calpain inhibitor Calpeptin against focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.

To demonstrate the protective effects of Calpeptin as the Calpain inhibitor against focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats and to explore it's possible mechanism. 96 rats were randomly divided into four groups. The model of middle cerebral artery occlusion was used for the research of focal cerebral ischemia. Using this animal model, the effects of Calpeptin on the neurological functions, infarction volume and infarction volume percentage of brain, Caspase-3 expression and neuronal apoptosis in hippocampal CA1 sector after focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats were investigated. The current results confirmed that Calpeptin as the Calpain inhibitor might paly an important role for neuroprotection against focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Calpeptin could reduce the neuronal apoptosis in hippocampal CA1 sector when the rats was subjected to the focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, the potential mechanism might be related to the inhibition of the expression of Caspase-3 by Calpeptin. However, it is still unknown to what the exact mechanism of Calpeptin inhibits the activation of Caspase-3 in this process. Therefore, further research needs to be done to unravel the underlying mechanisms in the future.