Prolactin attenuates global cerebral ischemic injury in rat model by conferring neuroprotection

ABSTRACT

Primary Objective: Limited available therapeutics for ischemic stroke necessitate dire need of designing novel strategies for combating ischemic pathophysiological cascade among which neuroprotective strategies emerge as positive approaches. The neuropeptide prolactin is a pleiotropic hormone that affects various physiological conditions and reportedly combats neurotoxicity, neuronal stress and provides neuroprotection to hippocampal neurons in vitro.

Research Design: The study explores the ability of prolactin in conferring neuroprotection in global cerebral ischemia in vivo and attempts to optimize the dose of prolactin which will be effective for the same.

Methods and Procedure: Global cerebral ischemia was induced in male rats by bilateral common carotid occlusion (BCCAO) and different physiological and biochemical parameters were evaluated. Also, cerebral infarction and percentage of brain edema were measured.

Results: The results revealed that prolactin significantly reduces cerebral infarct, brain water content and restores the physiological conditions like blood pressure, heart rate and cerebral blood flow. Also, prolactin markedly reduces the increased levels of the neurotransmitters (ɣ-aminobutyric acid and glutamate), cerebral calcium and nitrate in different brain compartments of ischemic rats.

Conclusion: Prolactin is able to ameliorate ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat brain and might be a potent candidate for further neuro-therapeutics development.

KEYWORDS:

• Neuroprotection
• prolactin
• cerebral ischemia
• BCCAO
• stroke

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Coordinator of Interdisciplinary School of Life Sciences, Banaras Hindu University for permitting to use the UV-HPLC facility and Mr. Chandra Prakash Patel for his help with UV-HPLC handling.

Author Contribution

BB and SM performed the experiments, BB, SM and GK analyzed the results, SM and GK wrote the manuscript, RP supervised and guided the entire study.

Disclosure of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.