Puerarin protects brain tissue against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by inhibiting the inflammatory response

This is going to be hard to implement in humans - 30 minutes before middle cerebral artery occlusion and 8 hours after reperfusion.
http://www.nrronline.org/article.asp?issn=1673-5374;year=2014;volume=9;issue=23;spage=2074;epage=2080;aulast=Zhou
Correspondence Address:
Yuanyuan Yao
Department of Anesthesiology, Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310009
China

DOI: 10.4103/1673-5374.147934

Abstract

Puerarin, a traditional Chinese medicine, exerts a powerful neuroprotective effect in cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, but its mechanism is unknown. Here, we established rat models of middle cerebral artery ischemia/reperfusion injury using the suture method. Puerarin (100 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally 30 minutes before middle cerebral artery occlusion and 8 hours after reperfusion. Twenty-four hours after reperfusion, we found that puerarin significantly improved neurological deficit, reduced infarct size and brain water content, and notably diminished the expression of Toll-like receptor-4, myeloid differentiation factor 88, nuclear factor kappa B and tumor necrosis factor-α in the ischemic region. These data indicate that puerarin exerts an anti-inflammatory protective effect on brain tissue with ischemia/reperfusion damage by downregulating the expression of multiple inflammatory factors.