Study on expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein of the rat after cerebral ischemia

Objective To study the expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP) after cerebral ischemia,in order to find out a method of estimating the time of cerebral ischemia in forensic medicine aspect. Methods After setting up an model of experimental focal cerebral ischemia in rats,immunohistochemical method was applied to observe the changes of GFAP in the cerebral and the immunostaining results were assessed by computer imaging analysis system and statistic analysis. Results The expression of GFAP increased following the time of cerebral ischemia.At 1 h after ischemia,GFAP-positive compared with the normal group were not different.The expression of GFAP had become obviously from 1 h to 3 h(P0.05),and significantly stronger than previous one after 6 h(P0.01). Conclusion Expression of GFAP is correlated with the time of cerebral ischemia in rats,suggesting that the expression of GFAP may be served as the marker for timing of brain ischemia in forensic practice.