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. 2023 Nov 17;59(11):2026.
doi: 10.3390/medicina59112026.

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Melatonin and n-Acetylcysteine in Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Adult Rats

Hilal Aydin  1 , Ozgur Bulmus  2 , Oguzhan Korkut  3 , Eren Altun  4 , Ali Engin Ulusal  5
Affiliations

An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Melatonin and n-Acetylcysteine in Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Adult Rats

Hilal Aydin et al. Medicina (Kaunas). .

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The purpose of this study was to apply histopathological and immunohistochemical methods to compare the protective efficacy of melatonin and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) application in rats with experimental brain ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury induced through occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCA), and to evaluate the protective effect of their combined use. Materials and Methods: Forty-one young adult male Wistar albino rats were divided into five groups-control (n = 8), I/R group (n = 8), melatonin (n = 8), NAC (n = 8), and melatonin + NAC (n = 9). Results: All scores differed between the groups, apart from vascular congestion (p < 0.05). At two-way comparisons, all histological scores were significantly higher in the I/R group than in the control group (p < 0.05). No change occurred in the vascular congestion scores with the administration of melatonin, although decreases were determined in all other scores. These decreases were statistically significant for cellular eosinophilic pyknotic degeneration, vacuolization, and edema (p < 0.05). All histopathological scores in the group administered NAC together with melatonin were significantly lower than in the I/R group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The combined use of NAC and melatonin, the neuroprotective efficacy of which on histopathological parameters is shown in this study, now needs to be supported by further research.

Keywords: ischemia-reperfusion; melatonin; middle cerebral artery occlusion; n-acetylcysteine.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Scheme 1
Scheme 1
Preparation stages for the MCAO model.
Figure 1
Figure 1
Neuron cells with normal structures were characterized by clear edges and evenly stained nuclei and evenly stained intercellular substance, (H&E, 200×).
Figure 2
Figure 2
(a) Characteristic histopathological features of ischemia-reperfusion injury, including increased eosinophilia, pyknotic degeneration, nucleus shrinkage, vacuolization, necrosis, and edema in the I/R group. (b) Vacuolar degeneration and eosinophilic cells in the NAC group; the arrows indicate areas of vacuolar degeneration. (c) Edema and vacuolization in the Melatonin + NAC group.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Apoptotic cells showing high (a) and low (b) reactivity at TUNEL staining, (TUNEL 400×).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Histopathological scores between groups.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Histopathological scores between groups. x: Comparison with the control group. a: Comparison with the I/R group. x/a p < 0.05, xx/aa p < 0.01, xxx/aaa p < 0.001.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Apoptotic index between groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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