, 2007 and Takeda et al., 2006). While the mechanism of protection remains unclear, it has been demonstrated that serofendic acid inhibits the generation of hydroxyl radicals and prevents

mitochondrial membrane depolarization and caspase-3 activation (Kume et al., 2006, Osakada et al., 2004 and Taguchi et al., 2003). We have previously reported the protective effect of serofendic acid on ischemia-reperfusion injury induced by transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAo) in rats. Intracerebroventricular administration of serofendic acid reduced the infarct volume, particularly in the cortex, and improved neurological deficit scores (Nakamura et al., 2008). selleck However, we previously reported that serofendic acid had a very low brain-to-plasma value (0.021), as passive transport of serofendic acid hardly occurs because of the existence of the carboxylic group (Terauchi et al., 2007). Thus, there are no reports of the effect of peripheral administration of serofendic acid on cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. Whereas, serofendic acid enters into the brain in some degree in intravenous administration Epigenetic inhibitor (Terauchi et al., 2007) and it protects against cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury

at low concentration in the brain (Nakamura et al., 2008). Therefore, we investigated the effect of serofendic acid administrated intravenously on ischemia-reperfusion injury induced by tMCAo in rats. We examined the protective effect of multiple intravenous administration of serofendic acid because blood level of serofendic acid is immediately decreased (Terauchi et al., 2007). As a multiple administration, we utilized three times administration many of serofendic acid at 30 min before the onset of ischemia, just (within 5 min) after the onset of ischemia, and just (whithin 5 min) before reperfusion. Three times administration of serofendic acid (10 mg/kg) reduced infarct volume (Fig. 1). Next, we examined the dose-dependent effect of serofendic acid on infarct volume. Three times administration of serofendic acid (1–10 mg/kg) reduced infarct volume in a dose-dependent

manner (Fig. 2A). We examined the functional recovery by three times administration of serofendic acid with the evaluation of neurological deficit scores. Serofendic acid (1–10 mg/kg) improved neurological deficit scores in a dose-dependent manner (Fig. 2B). It is suggested that necrotic cell death occurs at ischemic core region and apoptotic cell death occurs at ischemic penumbra region (Ueda and Fujita, 2004). So, we examined the infarct volume limitation effect of serofendic acid at ischemic core (striatum) and penumbra (cerebral cortex) region to suggest that serofendic acid protects from which type of cell death. Serofendic acid significantly reduced the infarct volume at cerebral cortex, but did not affect the infarct volume at striatum (Fig. 3). Cerebral blood flow is a crucial factor for ischemic insults.