Fig 1.
A, Experimental timeline for ischemia, reperfusion, neurological score evaluation, TUNEL staining, western blotting, determination of brain water content, tissue oxidative stress, and serum inflammatory factors. B, Effect of dexmedetomidine on CBF before, during, and after cerebral ischemia in normal and diabetic rats. * p < 0.05, ischemia vs baseline within all groups; # p < 0.05 reperfusion vs ischemia within all groups.
Table 1.
The Characteristics and physiological variables of rats in the experimental groups.
Fig 2.
A, Neurologic deficit scores. The average scores for each rat for the 3 day scoring period are shown. Diabetes significantly increased the neurologic deficit scores compared with normal rats; dexmedetomidine decreased the scores in normal and diabetic rats. B, Brain water content in representative frontal and parietal lobes of each group. Diabetes significantly increased the brain water content compared with normal rats; dexmedetomidine decreased the content in normal and diabetic rats. * p < 0.05, ischemia vs baseline within all groups; # p < 0.05 reperfusion vs ischemia within all groups.
Fig 3.
A, Immunohistochemical images of TdT-mediated dUTP nick end-labeling (TUNEL, 400×) in ischemic hippocampus and cortex 72h after I/R. TUNEL-positive cells significantly increased in diabetic rats compared with normal rats; dexmedetomidine significantly decreased the number of TUNEL-positive neurons in normal and diabetic rats. B, TUNEL-positive cell counts 72h after reperfusion. * p < 0.05 vs NGC group, # p < 0.05 vs HGC group.
Fig 4.
The concentration of apoptosis-related proteins and Iba1 in hippocampal tissue isolated from each group.
A, Representative western blot bands of Bcl-2 (26kDa), Bax (20kDa), cytochrome c (11 kDa), Iba1(17kDa) and β-actin (43kDa) in the left hippocampus 4h after reperfusion. B, Quantification of western blot bands compared with β-actin (100%). * p < 0.05 vs NGC group, # p < 0.05 vs HGC group.
Fig 5.
MDA and Nox2 levels along with, and SOD and CAT activity in hippocampal tissue isolated from each group.
* p < 0.05 vs NGC group, # p < 0.05 vs HGC group.
Fig 6.
IL-6 and TNF-α serum concentrations in each group.
* p < 0.05 vs NGC group, # p < 0.05 vs HGC group.
Table 2.
Correlations analysis results.