CEREBROLYSIN(R) PROTECTS ISOLATED CORTICAL-NEURONS FROM NEURODEGENERATION AFTER BRIEF HISTOTOXIC HYPOXIA

A brief period of histotoxic hypoxia exhibits certain metabolic featur es resembling the in vivo situation of ischemia. In this study the neu roprotective effects of the peptidergic nootropic drug Cerebrolysin(R) (Cere) against iodoacetate induced histotoxic hypoxia were investigat ed. For that purpose isolated cortical neurons from 9 day chicken embr yos were precultured with 0 to 6.4 mg.Cere/ml medium. At the 8th day i n vitro histotoxic hypoxia was induced by incubation with 0.01 or 0.1 mM. iodoacetate. Cells were allowed to recover from toxic stress for 3 , 6, 24 or 48 hours. Cere protected neurons dose dependently from dela yed neuronal cell death due to 0.01 mM iodoacetate even after a recove ry period of 48h. After induction of histotoxic hypoxia by 0.1 mM iodo acetate high concentrations of Cere again led to neuronal protection a fter the 3 and 6 h recovery period. Moreover the influence of Cere on the cytoskeletal protein MAP2 in neurons submitted to 0.01 mM iodoacet ate was investigated. With Western blotting and immunohistochemical te chniques it has been demonstrated that the drug clearly increased MAP2 abundance after histotoxic hypoxia. The present study points out that after severe damage of cortical neurons with iodoacetate Cere is able to protect neurons from delayed neuronal cell death maybe by maintain ing neuronal plasticity due to avoidance of the cytoskeletal breakdown .