Carnosine pretreatment protects against hypoxia-ischemia brain damage in the neonatal rat model

Perinatal hypoxia-ischemia brain injury is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in neonates and lacks an effective treatment thus far. Carnosine has been demonstrated to play a neuroprotective role in the adult brain injuries. However, there is no information available concerning its neuroprotective role in the immature brains after hypoxia-ischemia insults. Therefore, we investigated whether carnosine could also confer neuroprotective effects in a neonatal rat hypoxia-ischemia model. Hypoxia-ischemia was induced in rats on postnatal day 7 (P7). Carnosine (250 mg/kg) was administered intraperitoneally, 30 min prior to hypoxia-ischemia induction. Morphological brain injury and biochemical markers of apoptosis and oxidative stress were evaluated 24 h after hypoxia-ischemia induction. Cognitive performance was evaluated by the Morris Water Maze test on P28-P33. We found that pretreatment with carnosine significantly reduced the infarct volume and the number of terminal-deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL)-positive cells in the hypoxia-ischemia brain. Carnosine also inhibited mRNA expression of apoptosis-inducing factor(AIF) and caspase-3, which was accompanied by an increase in superoxide dismutase(SOD)activity and a decrease in the malondialdehyde(MDA)level in carnosine-treated rats. Furthermore, carnosine also improved the spatial learning and memory abilities of rats declined due to hypoxia-ischemia. These results demonstrate that carnosine can protect rats against hypoxia-ischemia-induced brain damage by antioxidation.