Postconditioning with repeated mild hypoxia protects neonatal hypoxia-ischemic rats against brain damage and promotes rehabilitation of brain function.

RATIONALE: Mild hypoxia conditioning induced by repeated episodes of transient ischemia is a clinically applicable method for protecting the brain against injury after hypoxia-ischemic brain damage.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the effect of repeated mild hypoxia postconditioning on brain damage and long-term neural functional recovery after hypoxia-ischemic brain damage.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Rats received different protocols of repeated mild hypoxia postconditioning. Seven-day-old rats with hypoxia ischemic brain damage (HIBD) from the left carotid ligation procedure plus 2 h hypoxic stress (8% O2 at 37 °C) were further receiving repeated mild hypoxia intermittently. The gross anatomy, functional analyses, hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1a) expression, and neuronal apoptosis of the rat brains were subsequently examined. Compared to the HIBD group, rats postconditioned with mild hypoxia had elevated HIF-1a expression, more Nissl-stain positive cells in their brain tissue and their brains functioned better in behavioral analyses. The recovery of the brain function may be directly linked to the inhibitory effect of HIF-1α on neuronal apoptosis. Furthermore, there were significantly less neuronal apoptosis in the hippocampal CA1 region of the rats postconditioned with mild hypoxia, which might also be related to the higher HIF-1a expression and better brain performance. Overall, these results suggested that postconditioning of neonatal rats after HIBD with mild hypoxia increased HIF-1a expression, exerted a neuroprotective effect and promoted neural functional recovery.

CONCLUSIONS: Repeated mild hypoxia postconditioning protects neonatal rats with HIBD against brain damage and improves neural functional recovery. Our results may have clinical implications for treating infants with HIBD.