Therapeutic benefit of urocortin in rats with intracerebral hemorrhage

What is it about?

Urocortin (UCN) is a anti-inflammatory neuropeptide which protects cardiomyocytes against ischemia-reperfusion injury, and alleviates endotoxin-induced injury to dopaminergic neurons. Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), which causes injury to the brain, remains a major medical problem. We discover that UCN also reduces damages caused by ICH if it were given to the ICH rats within 1 hour. ICH was induced by an infusion of bacteria collagenase VII-S into the right striatum of anesthetized rats. At 1 hour after induction of ICH, UCN (5 g) was infused into the right lateral ventricle. Post-treatment of UCN did not affect the hemorrhagic volume on 1 day after ICH, but significantly reduced the hemorrhage-induced lesion on 3 (P<0.01) and 7 (P<0.05) days after ICH, respectively. Brain edema (P<0.05) and blood-brain barrier permeability (P<0.05) on 3 days after ICH also reduced significantly in rats receiving post-treatment of UCN. Moreover, the neurological abnormalities caused by ICH improved throughout the 1 to 7 days in rats receiving post-treatment of UCN.

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Why is it important?

ICH is a devastating disease without any cure. Our finding suggests that UCN may work in reducing the severity of ICH injury if given in time.

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