Effect of panax notoginseng saponin on proliferation and differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells in neonatal rats with hypoxic-ischemia brain damage

Objective:To observe the effect of panax notoginseng saponin(PNS) on proliferation and differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells in neonatal rats with hypoxic-ischemia brain damage(HIBD).Methods:Seventy-two neonatal SD rats aged seven days old were randomly divided into Sham operation group,HIBD group,and PNS group,modified Rice-Vannucci method was used to establish HIBD models.The rats were treated with injection of PNS,5-bromodeoxyuridine(BrdU) was used to label neural stem cells at proliferative state,immunohistochemical single staining and double-immunofluorescence technique were used to observe the effect of PNS on BrdU immunoreactivity in hippocampus of HIBD rats and BrdU/neuron specific enolase(NSE),BrdU/glial fibrillary acidic protein(GFAP) dual-labeling immunoreactivities,then the results were counted and analyzed.Results:Positive BrdU cells existed in hippocampus of HIBD rats;the numbers of positive BrdU cells and dual-labeling positive cells in hippocampus of HIBD rats treated with PNS increased significantly(P0.01).Conclusion:PNS can induce the proliferation and differentiation of endogenous neural stem cells in HIBD rats,which indicates that it may have the ability of promoting neurogenesis.