The effect of pentoxifylline on global ischemia/reperfusion induced spatial memory impairment in estrous phase of female Wistar rat

The short break in cerebral blood flow causes permanent brain injury and behavioral dysfunction. The hippocampus, specifically the CA1 pyramidal cells, is highly vulnerable to ischemic injuries. There is no effective pharmacological strategy for improving brain tissue damage induced by cerebral ischemia. Previous studies reported that pentoxifylline has a neuroprotective effect on brain trauma and it is well known that endogenous estrogen improves stroke outcome during vascular occlusion. In this study, the possible positive effects of pentoxifylline and estrogen on behavioral deficit and neuronal damage were studied in female Wistar rats in estrous phase subjected to an experimental model of transient global brain ischemia. In this experimental study, female Wistar rats (n= 56) were assigned to control, ischemia, vehicle, and pentoxifylline - treated (200 mg/kg IP) groups and all of them were in their estrous phase. Pentoxifylline was administered at 1 h before and 1 h after ischemia. Global cerebral ischemia was induced by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion, followed by reperfusion.Morris water maze and nissl staining was used for all groups. According to Morris water maze test results, cerebral ischemia could not exert any negative effect on cognitive spatial abilities after reperfusion and there were no significant differences between groups. In Nissl study, there were significant differences between number of pyramidal cells in both control and pentoxifylline - treated groups (P≤0.05), either ischemia and vehicle groups. Our study illustrated that pentoxifylline can reduce CA1 cell damages and in presence of estrogen prevents any cognitive impairment in female rats which were subjected to brain global ischemia.