Atorvastatin and whisker stimulation synergistically enhance angiogenesis in the barrel cortex of rats following focal ischemia

Physical therapy can promote neurovascular plasticity and functional recovery after CNS disorders such as ischemic stroke. We have previously demonstrated that whisker stimulation promotes angiogenesis in the penumbra of the ischemic barrel cortex. The aim of this study was to examine whether atorvastatin and whisker stimulation can act synergistically in enhancing angiogenesis in the barrel cortex following ischemia. Rats were divided into sham-operation, control, atorvastatin-treatment, whisker stimulation and combination therapy groups. And they were trained continuously for 10 trials per half day until the rat fulfilled 80% correct choices for continuous thirty trials, which were considered to reach the criteria. The number was significantly less in the combination therapy group than that in the whisker stimulation group (P<0.01). Immunofluorescence was used to detect angiogenesis 14d following focal ischemia. These data showed that the combination therapy was more effective in enhancing VEGF and BDNF expression than whisker stimulation (P<0.01). Our study indicated that atorvastatin can improve the discrimination ability of whisker stimulation in rats and amplify post-ischemic angiogenesis induced by whisker stimulation, potentially via enhanced expression of VEGF and BDNF in the peri-infarct region.