Protective Effect of Palmatin Hydrochloride on Improving Spatial Memory, Antioxidant Capacity and Necrosis Cell Death of Hippocampus Following Brain Ischemia Reperfusion

Palmatine is a protoberbene of the alkaloids group with antioxidant activities in various animal models. Recent studies have shown that palmatine prevents gentamicin-induced apoptosis in kidney tissue with antioxidant effects.Brain ischemia-reperfusion can cause irreversible damage especially in the area of the hippocampus. The aimof thestudy was to evaluatethe effect of Palmatine on cognitive function, antioxidant activity and neuronal cell death following brain ischemia-reperfusion in male rats.

21male wistar rats were divided into three groups. 1-Sham group, 2-Ischemia group due to obstruction of both normal carotid arteries for 20 minutes,and3-Treatment group in which palmatine injection at a dose of 100 mg / kg was performed intraperitoneallyat the beginning of the reperfusion period and again after 24 and 48 hours.Spatial memory test was evaluated by Morris water maze.The brains were removed forantioxidant enzyme evaluation and Nissl staining to assess necrosis neuronal death within the hippocampal CA1 area.

The results showedthat the rate of learningin treatment group improved versus the ischemia group(P<0.05). Moreover, the attendanceof animals in the target circlein the probe test, in the treatment groups was significantly higher than the Ischemia groupwhich indicates an improvement in memory performance (P<0.05). Palmatine could significantly reduce necrosis cell death(P<0.05) in CA1 area of hippocampus.Also palmatine could significantly reduce MDA and increase SOD concentration (P<0.05).

The findings showed that treatment with Palmatine significantly ameliorated hippocampal injury and spatial learning andmemory impairments after brain ischemic. These protective effects of Palmatine appear to be mediated by many mechanisms such as necrosis and apoptosis cell death by suppression of free radicals formation.