Losartan, a commonly used anti-hypertensive angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1) antagonist, ameliorates neurological scores, blood brain –barrier permeability and brain water content after severe tra

Background and Aim : Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a serious medical and social problem worldwide. Because of the complex pathophysiological mechanisms of TBI, effective pharmacotherapy is still lacking. Angiotensin II (ANG II) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of brain injury. Overproduction of Ang II during traumatic brain injury (TBI) induces the activation neuroinflammation and cell death in a model of diffuse neuronal injury. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effects of neuroprotective losartan after traumatic brain injury in male rats.Methods : The male Albino wistar rats received different doses of losartan (5, 10, 20 unit/kg, i.p.). All animals were intubated before surgery. In the TBI groups except sham and intact control groups, diffuse TBI was induced by Marmarou method using a TBI induction device. The severe TBI was induced using a weight 450 gr. The neurologic scores (VCS) and brain water content, the beam-walk –balance task (WB) and BBB integrity (Evans blue) were recorded for 72 hours.Results : Our results showed that traumatic brain injury led to significant brain edema and disruption of blood brain- barrier, neurological scores defect and Vestibulomotor dysfunction in compare with intact-sham control groups (P<0.001) but losartan in two dose (5 and 10 mg/kg) improved neurology dysfunction but in 10 mg/kg dose results were better in compare with TBI-saline control groups (P<0.001).Conclusion : These findings showed that losartan has beneficial effects on blood–brain barrier permeability, neuroprotection and neural repair and also it can decrease BBB permeability, neurological scores and brain edema after traumatic brain injury.

کلیدواژه ها:

Losartan ، TBI ، neuroprotection ، blood brain-barrier ، rat