Evaluation of the neuroprotective effect of ketoprofen on rats submitted to permanent focal brain ischemia.

OBJECTIVE To study the neurobehavioral, biochemical and histopathological consequences of permanent focal brain ischemia, and the putative neuroprotective action of ketoprofen. METHOD One-hundred-and-three Wistar rats divided into groups A and B were respectively submitted to 48 hours and 15 days of ischemia. Each group was divided into 4 subgroups: ischemic not treated, ischemic treated, sham not treated, and sham treated. Ischemic animals had the left middle cerebral artery coagulated. Ketoprofen was administered to treated subgroups 15 minutes before arterial coagulation (manipulation in the sham group). RESULTS Exploratory activity and defecation were reduced in all ischemic animals in the first postoperative days and constant histopathological changes were observed in each group. The total brain glutamate levels were higher in treated animals 48 hours after surgery. CONCLUSION No clear parallelism among behavioral, biochemical and histopathological findings was observed. Ketoprofen demonstrated no neuroprotective effect on the behavioral or histopathological aspects of focal permanent brain ischemia.