| Objective: To observe the effects of rehabilitative training on neuronal function in rats with cerebral ischemia reperfusion (I/R), and to explore the mechanism of rehabilitative training on vascular regeneration. Methods: After one week of adaption, cerebral I/R surgeries were performed on SD rats. After 24 h, I/R rats with neurological scores of 2-3 points were divided into cerebral I/R group (24 animals) and rehabilitative training group (16 animals). A total of, 8 rats receiving sham operation served as control group. The rats in rehabilitative training group exercised according to the procedure every day. On the 7th and 14th day, rats were scored for neuronal function and some rats were randomly selected for TTC staining, immunohistochemistry and immunoblotting experiments. Results: I/R caused neurological damage in rats. Rehabilitative training on the 7th and 14th day effectively improved the neurological scores (P<0.05). In addition, I/R promoted the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and nerve growth factor (NGF) proteins in the rat brain and promoted the establishment of vascular microcirculation in the brain. As compared with cerebral I/R group, rehabilitative training on the 7th and 14th day significantly increased the expression of VEGF and NGF (P<0.05) and accelerated the establishment of vascular microcirculation in infarct area (P<0.05). Conclusion: Rehabilitative training can effectively improve the neuronal functions which were destroyed due to cerebral I/R in rats probably by accelerating the establishment of vascular microcirculation in the ischemic area by increasing the expression of VEGF and NGF. |
