[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to investigate whether early hyperbaric
oxygen is useful in rats with permanent
cerebral ischemia, and whether its mechanism relates to the inhibition of the
tumor necrosis factor-alpha-
protein kinase C-alpha pathway. [Subjects] Healthy, male Sprague-Dawley rats (N = 108) were the subjects. [Methods] After
middle cerebral artery occlusion models were successfully made, rats were randomly divided into
sham-operated,
cerebral ischemia, and hyperbaric
oxygen groups. At 4 and 12 hours after modeling, the volume of
cerebral infarction was determined by
triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining, and brain water content was measured using the dry and wet method. The expression of
tumor necrosis factor-alpha and
protein kinase C-alpha in the ischemic penumbra tissue was measured using Western blot analysis. [Results] The data showed that at 4 and 12 hours after modeling,
cerebral infarct volume and brain water content decreased in the hyperbaric
oxygen group, and expression of
tumor necrosis factor-alpha and phospho-
protein kinase C-alpha in the ischemic penumbra tissue also decreased. [Conclusion] Our study demonstrates that early
hyperbaric oxygen therapy has protective effects on brain tissue after
cerebral ischemia, possibly via inhibition of
tumor necrosis factor-alpha and phospho-
protein kinase C-alpha.