@article{ref1,
title="Protective effects of icariin on traumatic brain injury",
journal="Current neurovascular research",
year="2021",
author="Du, Anni and Cai, Rui and Shi, Jingshan and Wu, Qin",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="BACKGROUND: Neuroinflammation is central to the pathology of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Icariin (ICA) is a flavonoid derived from the genus Epimedium which is a traditional Chinese herb, a potential therapeutic drug for TBI. This study aims to explore the protective effect of ICA on TBI and its mechanism. <br><br>METHODS: Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to controlled cortical impact to produce a neuroinflammatory response. The treatment groups received ICA (15 mg/kg, 30 mg/kg and 60 mg/kg), while the sham group was gavaged with equal volumes of saline. The beam-balance testing and prehensile traction test were used for neurological scoring. Pathological changes were observed by H&E staining. The protein expression levels of inflammatory factors were measured by Western blot analysis Results: It was found that ICA significantly improved the neuroethology function and alleviated the pathological injury in TBI rats. The protein expression levels of inflammatory factors COX-2, IL-1β, and TNF-α and its regulatory proteins p-NF-κB-p65, p-ERK1/2, p-JNK, and p-p38 were increased in the cerebral cortex injured by TBI. The protein expression levels of inflammatory cytokines were markedly decreased in cerebral cortex of TBI rats when administrated with ICA. <br><br>CONCLUSION: The present study demonstrates that ICA may be a promising therapeutic strategy for reducing inflammation in TBI.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1567-2026",
doi="10.2174/1567202619666211223125628",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1567202619666211223125628"
}