earticle

영어

Bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion (BCCAO) causes an abrupt reduction of cerebral blood flow, and this method has been used to in-vestigate the effects of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion on vascular de-mentia and neuronal injuries. Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion leads to functional changes in the hippocampus and then results in a cognitive impairment. We investigated the effect of preischemic treadmill exer-cise on short-term memory and blood-brain barrier integration following cerebral hypoperfusion caused by BCCAO. The rats in the preischemic treadmill exercise and BCCAO group were made to run on a treadmill for 30 min once a day for 4 weeks. At 4 weeks after performing treadmill exercise, right carotid artery was ligated, and 1 week after, left common carotid artery was ligated. At 20 days after BCCAO, short-term memory was evaluated. Half of the rats were sacrificed 2 days after BCCAO and the other rats were sacrificed at 3 weeks after BCCAO. Immunohisto-chemistry and western blot were performed. Preischemic treadmill ex-ercise alleviated impairment of short-term memory in the step-down avoidance task. Preischemic treadmill exercise reduced microvascular injury in the hippocampus. Preischemic treadmill exercise prevented the reduction of zonula occludens-1 in the hippocampus and inhibited the activation of matrix metalloproteinase-9. Therefore, pre-condition-ing treadmill exercise might be used as a therapeutic strategy for the prevention of stroke in patients.