The Effect of Herniarin on Spatial Working Memory, Pain Threshold, and Oxidative Stress in Ischemic Hypoperfusion Model in Rats

Background: Ischemia causes severe neuronal damage and induces oxidative stress, memory impairment, and reduces pain threshold. Herniarin is a powerful antioxidant. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of herniarin on memory, pain, and oxidative stress in an ischemia model in male rats. Materials & Methods: In this study, 50 male rats were divided into 5 groups of control, sham, ischemic, and two other ischemic groups, which received herniarin at doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg by gavage for 14 days. Behavioral tests were performed by shuttle box, and Y-maze and pain tests were performed by Tail-Flick test. Then, the rats’ brains were extracted to evaluate lipid peroxidation and measure the levels of thiol and Glutathione Peroxidase (GPX) in the hippocampus and striatum tissues. The results were expressed as Mean±SEM and then analyzed using suitable statistical methods of ANOVA and least significant difference post-hoc test in SPSS V. 20. Results: Herniarin significantly increased the avoidance memory, spatial memory, and pain thresholds of ischemic rats at different concentrations (P<0.001). Besides, the amount of malondialdehyde (MDA) and thiol in the ischemic group increased significantly in comparison to the control group (P<0.001). Also, in the ischemic group, GPX (P<0.001) significantly decreased. Decreased MDA (P<0.001) and thiol (P<0.001) and increased GPX levels were observed with herniarin administration (P<0.01). Conclusion: According to this study’s results, herniarin can remove free radicals and oxidant substances from the brain. Thus, it improves memory and pain thresholds in the brain hypoperfusion ischemia model.