Protective Effect of Angiopoietin-1 on the Blood Brain Barrier after Focal Cerebral IschemiaReperfusion Injury in Rats

Objective: To observe the protective effect of angiopoietin-1 (Ang-1) on the blood brain barrier (BBB) after focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (CIRI) in rats. Methods: Forty male healthy Wister rats were selected. The focal CIRI models were established using middle cerebral artery occlusion and 30 rats were divided into sham-operation group (n=10), normal saline group (NS) group (n＝10) and Ang-1 treatment group (n＝10). The rats were killed 48 h after reperfusion, and brain water content, BBB permeability, cerebral infarction volume and neurological severity scores in rats were detected respectively. Results: 48 h after reperfusion, both the brain water content and Evans blue (EB) content in Ang-1 treatment group were significantly lower than in NS control [(68.69±4.46) % vs. (79.08±4.12) %, P＜0.001; (98.60±10.56) μg/g vs. (379.90±21.64) μg/g, P＜0.001], and there was no statistical significance by comparison to those in sham-operation group [(65.37±3.28) %; (89.62±8.65) μg/g, P＞0.05)]. The cerebral infarction volume in Ang-1 treatment group was markedly smaller than in NS group [(0.119±0.022) cm3 vs. (0.407±0.036) cm3, P＜0.001], and no significant difference was presented when compared with sham-operation group [(0.104±0.011) cm3, P＞0.05]. Besides, the neurological severity scores in Ang-1 treatment group were notably lower than in NS group [(1.83±0.29) points vs. (2.87±0.34) points, P＜0.001], but higher than in sham-operation group [(0.79±0.11) points, P＜0.001]. Conclusion: Ang-1 can decrease BBB permeability after focal CIRI in rats, so it has a protective effect on CIRI