Neuroglobin Content in Rat Brain Structures after Subtotal Cerebral Ischemia

Neuroglobin (Ngb) is a member of the globin family. Like other globin proteins, it is involved in the maintenance of oxygen homeostasis. Ngb distribution in the normal brain is well known, but its response to pathological injury, such as cerebral ischemia, has not yet been adequately elucidated. One primary reason for this is that ischemic lesions in cerebral tissues have mostly been studied in transgenic organisms. In addition, the available data on Ngb content are limited to a small number of brain structures. This article examines the patterns of changes in Ngb immunoreactivity in neurons from different parts of the rat brain after subtotal cerebral ischemia of varying duration. An immunohistochemical study of Ngb content in 25 brain structures of white male Wistar rats exposed to 30-min and 3-h subtotal cerebral ischemia was performed. A decrease in Ngb content in all structures (especially 3 h after the ischemia onset and in the phylogenetically older parts), temporal mediation, and dependence on the phylogenetic age were revealed. The obtained results further decipher the correlation between the changes in Ngb content and the degree of cerebral ischemic damage, which is necessary to clarify the functions of the studied protein.