Abstract

• The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the effect of allopurinol on ischemia and reperfusion-induced cerebral injury and to investigate the importance of xanthine oxidase (XO)-linked free radical in cerebral injury. Acute focal cerebral ischemia was induced by occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery(MCA). The experimental animals were divided into three groups. The group I was the sham control and group II the cats of 4-hour occlusion and recirculation. The Group III, The treatment group, was given allopurinol (50mg/kg) of peritoneal injection 2 hours prior to the occlusion of the MCA. The brain tissue of left MCA territory was removed, and homogenate was made. Supernatent and cytoplasm were obtained by centrifuge 30min at 3,000rpm(4℃), and recentrifuge 20min at 11,000rpm(4℃), respectively XO activities were measured in all samples by spectrophotometer. The XO activities was increased in group II. allopurinol significantly suppressed the XO activities in group III. It suggested that the XO may play important role in the pathogenesis of isechemic injury of cat brain and allopurinol could be used as therapeutic agents in the clinical field of the focal cerebral ischemical patients.