Urocortin exerts neuroprotective effects in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) of rats. For pre-clinical trial， we intended to study the neuroprotective efficacy of human UCN (hUCN)-1， -2 and -3 in treating ICH rats. ICH was induced by infusing bacterial collagenase VII (0.23 U in sterile saline) to the striatum. The hUCN-1， -2， and -3 were administrated (2.5μg/kg， i.p.) at 1h after ICH insult， respectively. Neurological deficits were evaluated by modified Neurological Severity Scores. Brain edema and hematoma expansion was evaluated by coronal T2-WI and DWI magnetic resonance imaging on 1， 3， 6， 24， and 56h after ICH insult. Blood-brain barrier permeability was evaluated by Evans blue assay on... More
Urocortin exerts neuroprotective effects in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) of rats. For pre-clinical trial， we intended to study the neuroprotective efficacy of human UCN (hUCN)-1， -2 and -3 in treating ICH rats. ICH was induced by infusing bacterial collagenase VII (0.23 U in sterile saline) to the striatum. The hUCN-1， -2， and -3 were administrated (2.5μg/kg， i.p.) at 1h after ICH insult， respectively. Neurological deficits were evaluated by modified Neurological Severity Scores. Brain edema and hematoma expansion was evaluated by coronal T2-WI and DWI magnetic resonance imaging on 1， 3， 6， 24， and 56h after ICH insult. Blood-brain barrier permeability was evaluated by Evans blue assay on day 3 after ICH. Brain lesion volume was evaluated by morphormetric measurement on day 7 after ICH. Our results demonstrated that the hUCN-1 significantly reduced hematoma， blood-brain barrier disruption and neurological deficits on day 3， and brain lesion volume on day 7 after ICH insult. The prediction of secondary structure of the hUCNs clarifies that the percentage of alpha-helix， random coil and extended strand between rat-UCN (rUCN)-1 and hUCN-1 are the same. The structure similarity between human- and rat-UCN-1 may be one of the reasons that both can exert similar therapeutic potential in ICH rats.
