Long pepper (Piper longum L.) and black pepper (Piper nigrum L.) plants are commonly used as spices around the world and have also been postulated to have medicinal effects.
Piperine, as the major
alkaloid of P. nigrum and P. longum, has gained wide attention of the medical community and culinary enthusiasts. This study seeks to determine the effects of
piperine on neuronal apoptosis in peri-infarcted cerebral cortices of rats with permanent
middle cerebral artery occlusion (pMCAO) injury. Evaluation of the different behavioral components was conducted after pMCAO. 2, 3, 5-Triphenyltetrazolium
chloride (TTC) was used to evaluate the area of cortical
ischemia. Gross histopathological changes, as well as microscopic neuronal changes, were observed in brain tissue samples. The
protein expression of
Caspase-3,
Caspase-9, Bax, Bcl-2, and
Cytochrome C (Cyt-c) was analyzed using western blotting. The findings reveal that rats that received
piperine treatment show markedly decreased neurological deficit, less
ischemia-induced cellular damage, as well as smaller areas of
cerebral infarction, with less severe macro and microcellular cerebral structural changes. Western blotting analysis reveals that
piperine administration inhibits Bax, while enhancing Bcl-2 expression. The
protein expression of
Caspase-3,
Caspase-9, and Cyt-c was also found to be significantly inhibited. We conclude that
piperine may provide several beneficial
neuroprotective effects that warrant further investigation.