Caspase-3 Activation in Brain Sections of Rat Subjected to Cerebral Ischemic Preconditioning

Objective To study the activation of Caspase-3 in rat brain subjected to cerebral ischemic preconditioning.Methods Using Ac-DEVD-AMC as a substrate.,caspase-3 enzymatic activity was measured in rat brain sections obtained from the following groups:the sham group,the preconditioning group,the cerebral ischemic group and the cerebral preconditioning-ischemic group.Results The Caspase-3 enzymatic activity in both cerebral ischemic group and cerebral preconditioning-ischemic group were significantly higher than that in sham group (P0.01);the Caspase-3 enzymatic activity in cerebral ischemic group was significantly higher than that in cerebral preconditioning-ischemic group (P 0.01). Conclusion The protective mechanism of ischemic preconditioning may contribute to inhibiting Caspase-3 enzymatic activity and subsequently inhibiting cerebral cell apoptosis.