Protective effect of ginkgolide B on high altitude cerebral edema of rats.

Abstract Yu Botao, Jie Ma, Wenjing Xiao, Qingyu Xiang, Kaihua Fan, Jun Hou, Juan Wu, and Weihua Jing. Protective effect of ginkgolide B on high altitude cerebral edema of rats. High Alt Med Biol 14:61–64, 2013.—Ginkgolide B (GB) is one of the ginkgolides isolated from leaves of the Ginkgo biloba tree. The aim of this study was to investigate whether GB has a protective effect on high altitude cerebral edema (HACE) of rats. HACE was induced by hypobaric hypoxia exposure for 24 hours in an animal decompression chamber with the chamber pressure of 267 mmHg to simulate an altitude of 8000 m. Before the exposure, three doses (3, 6, and 12mg·kg−1) of GB were given intraperitoneally (ip) daily for 3 days. Effects of GB on brain water content (BWC), activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), concentration of glutathione (GSH) and malondialdehyde (MDA), expression of active caspase-3 and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) were measured. In GB pretreatment groups (6 and 12 mg·kg−1, but not 3 mg·kg−1), BWC, the concent...