2. Academic Validation
  3. Therapeutic effects of human urocortin-1, -2 and -3 in intracerebral hemorrhage of rats

Therapeutic effects of human urocortin-1, -2 and -3 in intracerebral hemorrhage of rats

  • Neuropeptides. 2015 Aug:52:89-96. doi: 10.1016/j.npep.2015.05.004.
Hock-Kean Liew 1,  Li-Chuan Huang 2,  Hui-I Yang 1,  Hsiao-Fen Peng 1,  Kuo-Wei Li 3,  Andy Po-Yi Tsai 4,  Shin-Yuan Chen 5,  Jon-Son Kuo 6,  Cheng-Yoong Pang 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Medical Research, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
  • 2 Department of Radiology, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC; Institute of Medical Sciences, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
  • 3 Department of Medical Research, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC; Department of Life Science and Institute of Biotechnology, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
  • 4 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
  • 5 Department of Neurosurgery, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC; Neuro-Medical Scientific Center, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
  • 6 Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC; Neuro-Medical Scientific Center, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC.
  • 7 Department of Medical Research, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC; Institute of Medical Sciences, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan, ROC. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 26055808 DOI: 10.1016/j.npep.2015.05.004
Abstract

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.

Keywords

Brain edema; Brain lesion; Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH); Neuroprotection; Urocortins.

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