engleski

The influence of nicardipine and ifenprodil on the brain free arachidonic acid level and behavior in hypoxia-exposed rats

Cerebral hypoxia is associated with increase of intracellular calcium concentration and free arachidonic acid (FAA) level and followed by various behavioral disturbances. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of calcium channel blockers, nicardipine and ifenprodil, on the brain FAA level and learning ability in rats exposed to hypoxia. The study was carried out on Hannover-Wistar rats weighing 250 g. They were injected with 0, 03 ; 0, 1 ; 0, 3 or 1 mg/kg of tested drugs i.p. Thirty minutes later the learning ability was tested in a passive avoidance task according to the step-through procedure. Immediately after the training trial, the animals were subjected to a period of oxygen deprivation hypoxia until loosing of the righting reflex. The retention trial was carried out 24 hours later. Other group of animals was pretreated with mentioned substances before hypoxia-exposure. Fifteen minutes after losing of the righting reflex they were decapitated and brains were frozen in liquid nitrogen. The FAA level was quantified by gas chromatography. Our results show that both nicardipine and ifenprodil were effective in preventing a memory decline in hypoxia-exposed rats. Nicardipin did not prevent the accumulation of the brain FAA contrary to ifenprodil which produced statistically significantly decrease of the brain FAA level in hypoxia-exposed rats.

nicardipine; ifenprodil; free arachidonic acid; passive avoidance; brain hypoxia; rat

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