Effect of Semen Ziziphi Spinosae on histomorphologic changes of hippocampus in experimental model of brain ischemia

Cerebral ischemia is one of the major causes of death in the world. The hippocampal formation is one of the first areas of the brain to be damaged by stroke and ischemia. Semen Ziziphi Spinosae (SZS) has neuroprotective effects on the central nervous system, so this study investigates the neurotrophic effect of the components of SZS called jujuboside A on hippocampus of male Wistar rat following transient global ischemia-reperfusion.

The present study was performed on 24 male Wistar rats and the animals were divided into 4 groups (n=6) including control, ischemia, vehicle and experimental groups (jujuboside A). At the end of the experiment, after tissue preparation and staining with Nissl and hematoxylin-eosin methods, the samples were studied by light microscope. Pyramidal cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampus were counted by image tools 2 software and their mean was calculated.

The results of one-way ANOVA  and Tukey statistical test showed that there were no significant differences between the number of neurons in the CA1 region of hippocampus of the control and experimental (jujuboside A) groups .

It seems that administration of SZS causes neurotropic effect on pyramidal cells in the CA1 region of the hippocampus following cerebral ischemia.