Figure 2

Cerebral ischemia induced rapid activation of neutral sphingomyelinase and neutral sphingomyelinase 2 in rat hippocampal astrocytes. (A) After postischemic reperfusion of different durations (30 min, 1 h, 6 h, 12 h and 24 h), neutral sphingomyelinase (nMase) or acid sphingomyelinase (aSMase) activity in the rat hippocampus was detected. (B) GW4869 and its solvent were separately injected into the lateral ventricle prior to the 30-min post-ischemia-reperfusion (post-I/R) procedure, and activity levels of nSMase and aSMase in the rat hippocampi were then measured. (C) After different durations of post-I/R (30 min, 1 h and 6 h), activity and protein expression levels of nSMase2 in the rat hippocampus were measured. (D) Examination of nSMase2 expression levels in rat CA1, CA2 and CA3/dentate gyrus hippocampal areas and double-staining of nSMase2 and glial fibrillary acidic protein in the CA1 area of normal groups were carried out by immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence, respectively. Data are representative of the means ± SEM of four separate experiments (n = 4). *P < 0.05 vs. sham control. #P < 0.05 vs. ischemia solvent control.