Effect of Xingnaojing injection on cerebral edema and blood-brain barrier in rats following traumatic brain injury.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the effects of Xingnaojing injection on cerebral edema and blood-brain barrier (BBB) in rats following traumatic brain injury (TBI).


METHODS
A total of 108 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were used as subjects and randomly assigned to three groups: sham-operation, TBI and Xingnaojing injection groups (10 ml/kg/d, intraperitoneal injection). TBI in rats was set up by the improved device of Feeney's weight-dropping model with the impact of 600 g.cm. Brain water content and BBB permeability expressed as Evans blue content were measured at 1, 3, 5 and 7 days after surgery.


RESULTS
In sham-operation group, brain water content and Evans blue content in brain tissue were 78.97%+/-1.22% and 5.13 microgram+/-0.71 microgram. Following TBI, water content in brain tissue was increased significantly at 1, 3, 5 and 7 days (83.49%+/-0.54%, 82.74%+/-0.72%, 80.22%+/-0.68%, 79.21%+/-0.60%), being significantly higher than that in sham operation group (P less than 0.05). Evans blue content was increased in TBI group (16.54 microgram+/-0.60 microgram, 14.92 microgram+/-0.71 microgram, 12.44 microgram+/-0.92 microgram, 10.14 microgram+/-0.52 microgram) as compared with sham-operation group(P less than 0.05). After treatment with Xingnaojing injection, brain water content decreased as compared with TBI group (81.91%+/-1.04%, 80.38%+/-0.72%, 79.54%+/-0.58%, 78.60%+/-0.77%, P less than 0.05). Xingnaojing injection also reduced the leakage of BBB as compared with TBI group (15.11 microgram+/-0.63 microgram, 13.62 microgram+/-0.85 microgram, 10.06microgram+/-0.67 microgram, 9.54 microgram+/-0.41 microgram, P less than 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Xingnaojing injection could alleviate cerebral edema following TBI via reducing permeability of BBB.
Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Medical College of Zhejiang University and Sir Run Run Shaw Institute of Clinical Medicine, Hangzhou, China. HZ6372@hotmail.com <HZ6372@hotmail.com>
Miao
M
Xu
Wei
W
Su
Qiu-ping
QP
Xu
Wei-dong
WD
Huang
D000818:Animals; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier / Q000187:drug effects*; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000188:drug therapy*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007267:Injections; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D010539:Permeability; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal