The protective effect of qiancao naomaitong mixture on neuronal damage and cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury

Context Qiancao Naomaitong Mixture (QNM) is mainly used to treat ischemic stroke patients in the clinic. Objective This study evaluates the protective effect of QNM on neuronal damage in vitro, and clarifies the underlying mechanism against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in vivo. Materials and methods Activity assay of caspase 3 (C-3) and caspase 8 (C-8) were measured with microplate reader and cell apoptosis was investigated. Cerebral I/R injury was induced by MCAO model. QNM groups were given at 0.27, 0.54 and 1.08 mL/100 g body weight. The weight ratio of cerebral infarction tissue was obtained. The cytokine levels in serum and brain tissue were measured using ELISA. Results Compared with the OGD group (C-3: 29.69 +/- 5.63, C-8: 74.05 +/- 6.86), 100mg/mL QNM (C-3: 19.80 +/- 2.62, C-8: 48.94 +/- 6.41) and 200mg/mL QNM (C-3: 16.28 +/- 4.55, C-8: 41.08 +/- 4.05) treatments decreased C-3 and C-8 activities significantly, and inhibited apoptosis of SH-SY5Y cells. The weight ratios of cerebral tissues in low, medium and high dose groups were 17.33 +/- 5.1%, 17.78 +/- 5.4% and 14.25 +/- 4.2%, respectively, significantly lower than in control group. QNM also improved the cytokine levels in serum and brain tissue. In addition, histological examination indicated that dense neuropil and largely surviving neurons were seen in treated rats. Conclusion QNM exerted protective effect by inhibiting the cell apoptosis in vitro. The protective mechanisms of QNM were associated with its properties of anti-apoptosis and antioxidation as well as improved neuronal nutrition in I/R rats.