Neuroprotective effect of p-coumaric acid in mice with cerebral ischemia reperfusion injuries

Cerebral ischemia reperfusion (IR) is associated with neuronal death, which leads to disability and cognitive decline. The pathomechanism occurs because ischemia is exacerbated during the reperfusion period. Neuronal damage susceptibility depends on the affected brain areas and the duration of ischemia. Prevention and supplementation to neurons may help them endure during IR and further benefit them in rehabilitation. We investigated the protective effect of p-coumaric acid (PC) on cerebral IR injuries in mice. We randomly divided 30 male ICR mice into 3 groups of Sham (received vehicle and not induced IR), Control-IR (received vehicle and induced IR) and PC-IR (received 100 mg/kg PC and induced IR). We orally administered vehicle or 100 mg/kg of p-coumaric acid for 2 weeks before inducing the cerebral IR injuries by using 30 min of a bilateral common carotid artery occlusion followed by a 45-min reperfusion. We induced the IR condition in the Control-IR and PC-IR groups but not the Sham group, and only the PC-IR group received p-coumaric acid. After IR induction, we sacrificed all the mice and collected their brain tissues to evaluate their oxidative statuses, whole brain infarctions and vulnerable neuronal deaths. We studied the whole-brain infarction volume by 2, 3, 5-triethyltetrazoliumchloride staining of sections. We performed a histological investigation of the vulnerable neuronal population in the dorsal hippocampus by staining brain sections with 0.1% cresyl violet. The results indicated that IR caused significant increases in calcium and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, whole brain infarction volume and hippocampal neuronal death. Pretreatment with p-coumaric acid significantly reduced MDA levels, whole-brain infarction volume and hippocampal neuronal death together and increased catalase and superoxide dismutase activities. We conclude here that pretreating animals with p-coumaric acid can prevent IR-induced brain oxidative stress, infarction size and neuronal vulnerability to death in cerebral IR injuries.