Abstract: To study the effects of isoflurane and sevoflurane on c-fos and bcl-2 genes expression and protective in ischemic neuron, cerebral ischemia was produced by occlusion of right middle cerebral artery(MCA)and bilateral common carotid arteries(CCAs)for 1 h in rats. The rats were inhaled isoflurane and sevoflurane respectively at 1.0 minimum alveolar concentration during the ischemia. The infarct volume was delineated by triphenyltetrazolium chloride(TTC)stain. The DNA damage was detected by in situ end-labeling staining method on brain section. The expression of c-fos and bcl-2 genes were determined by in situ hybridization on brain section. Infarct volume and apoptotic cell of inhaled anesthetic groups were significant reduced compared with ischemic group at 72 h after 1 h of MCA/CCAs occlusion. The relative levels of c-fos mRNA induction of the inhaled anesthetic groups were significantly lower in the hippocampus at 4 h after 1 h of MCA/CCAs occlusion than that of the ischemic group. There was no statistical difference in bcl-2 mRNA relative levels between the inhaled anesthetic groups and the ischemic group in hippocampus at 24 h after 1 h of MCA/CCAs occlusion. These results shows that the isoflurane and sevoflurane have protective effects in ischemic neuron. For animals that inhaled isoflurane or sevoflurane during ischemia there was attenuation of c-fos mRNA induction in hippocampus, but there was no effect on bcl-2 mRNA expression.

Key words: cerebral ischemia, isoflurane, sevoflurane, gene expression, c-fos mRNA, bcl-2 mRNA