Objective: To study the therapeutic effects of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) on focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury in rats.
Methods: Adult male SD rats were subjected to transient (2 h) middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and scored 48 h later for such neurological functions as spontaneous movement, paresis, forelimb motor function, climbing ability, pain sensation, and position sense. Twenty rats with the total score less than 12 were divided equally into two groups to receive daily subcutaneous injection of 20 microg/kg of G-CSF for 19 days or the same dose of saline injection (control group). The rats in the two groups were also given intraperitoneal injection of Brdu10 mg/kg for 19 days. The neurological functions of the rats in both groups were examined on a weekly basis after MCAO and on day 21, the rats were killed to prepare frozen sections of the brain tissues for double immunohistochemical staining with Brdu and glial fibrillary acidic protein antibody to identify the neural cells newly evolved from the stem cells.
Results: The rats in G-CSF group showed better neurological function recovery than the control rats 3 weeks after MCAO (P<0.05). Obvious regeneration of the neural cells was observed around the infarction area in the rats receiving G-CSF treatment.
Conclusion: G-CSF promotes neurological function recovery and neural cell regeneration after cerebral infarction in rats and can be effective for intervention of focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.