To explore the radix astragali injection reducing oxidative stress on hippocampal neurons of asphyxia offspring rats during perinatal.

Thirty 10-week-old pregnant SD rats were divided into 3 groups (10 rats per group). All the rats had cesarean delivery on gestational day of nineteenth. The rats had cesarean delivery without any interventions were in the control group. The rats had clipping uterine blood vessel for 20 minutes before cesarean delivery were in the asphyxia group. The rats had clipping uterine blood vessel for 20 minutes and then injected radix astragali (10 ml/kg) into the uterus before cesarean delivery were in the asphyxia + radix group. The hippocampal neurons of offspring rats were cultivated in vitro after birth. Meanwhile, the cell survival rate, the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD), and the amount of malondialdehyde (MDA) and glutathione (GSH) were detected.

The cell survival rate of asphyxia group and asphyxia + radix group were (56.78±14.62)% and (65.96±17.46)%, which were significant lower than that of control group (99.15±15.63)%; And the cell survival rate of asphyxia group was also significant lower than that of asphyxia + radix group; all P values were less than 0.05. The SOD activity of asphyxia group, asphyxia + radix group and control group were (15.13±1.84) U/mg, (17.16±1.49) U/mg and (21.75±1.28) U/mg, respectively; The GSH content of the three groups were (59.68±22.16) mg/g, (198.72±27.34) mg/g and (321.56±31.74) mg/g, respectively. The SOD activity and GSH content of asphyxia group, asphyxia + radix group were significant lower than those of control group; and SOD activity, GSH content of asphyxia group were lower than those of asphyxia + radix group, there were significant difference, all P values were less than 0.05. The MDA content of asphyxia group, asphyxia + radix group were (4.98±2.12) nmol/mg, (3.68±1.47) nmol/mg, which were significant higher than that of control group (1.25±0.63) nmol/mg, and the MDA content of asphyxia group was also higher than that of asphyxia + radix group, the difference had significance, P values were less than 0.05.

Perinatal asphyxia decreased cell survival rate and resulted in oxidative stress of hippocampal neurons in offspring rats, but radix astragali improved the nerve cells damage and increased the cell survival rate.