Effect of resveratrol on apoptosis and expression of Caspase-3 in rats with focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion

AIM To study the effect of resveratrol on apoptosis and expression of Caspase-3 in rats following focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion,and explore the possible mechanism of resveratrol protect on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.METHODS Forty-eight male SD rats were randomly divided into four groups:sham operation group(S group),ischemia/reperfusion group(I/R group),low dose of resveratrol(15 mg / kg,I/R ﹢ R1 group) and high dose of resveratrol(30 mg / kg,I/R ﹢ R2 group).In middle cerebral artery occlusion(for) 2 h and reperfusion for 24 h,2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride was used to detecte infarct volume.TUNEL was used to measure apoptosis.Immunohistochemistry and Western blot were used to analyse the protein expression of Caspase-3.RESULTS Compared with I/R group,resveratrol significantly decreased the protein expression of Caspase-3 in ischemia brain tissue(P 0.01),reduced the number of apoptotic cells and the infarct volume(P 0.01).CONCLUSION Resveratrol can inhibit neuronal apoptosis in rats following focal cerebral ischemia and reperfusion,the mechanism may be related to decreased expression of Caspase-3.