13-Methyltetradecanoic acid mitigates cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury

13-Methyltetradecanoic acid can stabilize cell membrane and have anti-inlfammatory, antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects. Previous studies mainly focused on peripheral nerve injury, but seldom on the central nervous system. We investigated whether these properties of 13-methyltetradecanoic acid have a neuroprotective effect on focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury, and detected the expression of basic ifbroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor. This study established rat models of middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion injury by ischemia for 2 hours and reperfusion for 24 hours. At the beginning of reperfusion, 13-methyltetradecanoic acid 10, 40 or 80 mg/kg was injected into the tail vein. Results found that various doses of 13-methyltetradecanoic acid effectively reduced infarct volume, mitigate cerebral edema, and increased the mRNA and protein expression of basic ifbroblast growth factor and vascular endothe-lial growth factor at 24 hours of reperfusion. The effect was most signiifcant in the 13-methyltetradecanoic acid 40 and 80 mg/kg groups. The ifndings suggest that 13-methyltetradecanoic acid can relieve focal ischemia/reperfusion injury immediately after reperfusion, stimu-late the upregulation of basic ifbroblast growth factor and vascular endothelial growth factor to exert neuroprotective effects.