Sevoflurane pre-conditioning before
ischemia can reduce
ischemia-reperfusion injuries in cardiac, pulmonary and cerebral tissues. It is uncertain whether
sevoflurane conditioning before reperfusion has similar protective effects on neuronal
injuries. In this study, we explored the effect of
sevoflurane conditioning (at concentrations of 1.5%, 2.4% or 3.0%) on the morphology and molecular mechanisms of the hippocampal CA1 region in male Sprague-Dawley rats subjected to global
cerebral ischemia. We determined the pathological results by
hematoxylin and
eosin (H&E) staining and examined the
mRNA levels of
insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and
protein levels of p-JNK1/2 and p-Akt1 in the hippocampus at 24 h, 48 h and 72 h after global
cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. Our data showed that O2 post-conditioning and lower dose (1.5%) of
sevoflurane did not ameliorate
ischemia-induced CA1 injury. However, higher doses of 2.4% and 3.0%
sevoflurane post-conditioning alleviated the CA1 injury and enhanced the expression levels of
IGF-1 mRNA. Furthermore,
sevoflurane post-conditioning inhibited the activations of p-JNK1/2 and enhanced activation of p-Akt1. In conclusion, these results suggest that post-conditioning with
sevoflurane at 2.4% and 3.0% ameliorates global
cerebral ischemia induced hippocampal CA1 injury by up-regulating the expression of
IGF-1 mRNA followed by the activation of p-Akt1 and inhibition of the activation of p-JNK1/2.