Rhodioloside, the main effective constituent of Rhodiola rosea, demonstrates antiaging and antioxidative stress functions and inhibits
calcium overloading in cells. These functions imply that
rhodioloside may exert protective effects on hippocampal neurons after total
cerebral ischemia/
reperfusion injury. In this study, male Wistar rat models of total
cerebral ischemia were constructed and randomly divided into four groups:
sham-operation,
ischemia/reperfusion, low-dosage, and high-dosage groups. The result showed that
rhodioloside treatment reduced the apoptosis rates of hippocampal neurons and the histological grades of cone cells in the hippocampal CA1 region, but neuronal density was significantly increased. Besides, the
protein expressions of Bcl-2/Bax and p53 were measured and found Bcl-2/Bax was increased and p53
protein level was reduced. Therefore,
rhodioloside might have protective effects on rats with
ischemia/reperfusion
brain injury.