Attenuating brain inflammation, ischemia, and oxidative damage by Xuebijing in heat stroke rats

Xuebijing (XBJ) is a Chinese medicine compound preparation. The aim of the present study was to ascertain whether the brain inflammation, ischemia, apoptosis and oxidative damage in heat stroke (HS) rats can be attenuated by pre-treatment with XBJ. Anesthetized rats were divided into a normothermic group, a vehicle-treated HS group (4 mL phosphate-buffered saline per kg body weight twice daily for 3 days) and an XBJ-treated HS group (4 mL XBJ per kg body weight twice daily for 3 days). HS and XBJ-treated groups were exposed to an ambient temperature of 42.4 degrees C for 1 hour to induce HS. Negative control (NCs) was exposed to room temperature (26 degrees C). Their survival time, core temperatures, mean arterial pressures, inflammatory molecules, number of apoptotic cells in the hypothalamus and neuronal damage scores were determined. Hypothalamic neurons were treated with LPS (lipopolysaccharide) with or without XBJ and cell apoptosis was determined. The survival time for the XBJ-treated HS rats increased from the control values of 74-89 minutes to new values of 109-156 minutes. XBJ therapy caused a reduction of HS-induced cellular ischemia, hypoxia, inflammation, cell apoptosis and oxidative damage in the hypothalamus. XBJ significantly inhibited LPS-induced apoptosis of hypothalamic neurons. Our results suggest that XBJ treatment can reduce HS-induced inflammatory, ischemic, apoptotic and oxidative damage to the hypothalamus and can inhibit the apoptosis of hypothalamic neurons induced by LPS.