Arteaga , O. 1 , Revuelta, M. . 1 , Montalvo, H. 1 , Urigüen, L. 2 , Hilario, E. 1 & Álvarez, A. 1
1 Department of Cell Biology & Histology, School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain.
2 Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of the Basque Country, Leioa, Bizkaia, Spain.
Perinatal asphyxia and the resultant hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) can be devastating, resulting in death or severe neurological consequences. Resveratrol is a polyphenol with antioxidant properties. The aim of the present work was to assess whether resveratrol plays a protective effect when administered 10 minutes before or immediately after HI brain injury in neonatal rats using the Rice-Vannucci model.
PN7 pups were exposed to an HI insult, the left common carotid artery was permanently occluded and maintained under hypoxia (8% oxygen) for 135 minutes. Animals were treated with 20 mg/kg of resveratrol 10 minutes before hypoxia (RVT before) or immediately after (RVT after). Pups without injury were used as controls. PN14 brains were stained with Nissl and immunolabelled with MBP. T-maze, hole-board and novel object recognition tests were carried out on post-natal day 90.
The brains of HI and RVT after groups showed an infarct area in the ipsilateral hemisphere, while no macroscopic differences were observed between Control and RVT before. RVT before obtain better results in neuropathological scoring. Ratio of ipsilateral-contralateral hemispheric MBP showed a significant decrease in HI group in comparison with control, that was restored when resveratrol is administered before hypoxia. On PN90, RVT before animals performed better at neurobehavioral tests.
Our results suggest that a pretreatment with resveratrol reduced infarct volume, preserved oligodendroglial viability and improved long-term behavioural impairments.