Abstract: Objective: To investigate the dynamic change of Wnt3a in rats after focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion. Methods: 80 rats were induced by occlusion of middle cerebral artery with suture embolus and ischemia for 30 minutes, then randomly assigned into different groups to receive reperfusion for 3, 6, 12, 24 h, 3, 7, 14, 28 d. Sham operation group did not receive no suture embolus. The infarct side of the cortex of rats for each time group was harvested for the assessment of protein expression of activated Wnt3a using western blot staining. Results: Compared with the sham operation group (0.66±0.04), Wnt3a was slightly increased after 3 hours of focal cerebral ischemia reperfusion, and then reached the peak at 24 hours (1.57±0.18) and maintained a higher level within 7 days, declined after 2 weeks, but remained higher than the level of the sham operation group at 4 weeks (0.68±0.04). Conclusion: Wnt3a level of the cortex changed over time after reperfusion, suggesting that this signaling pathway may be activated in the regulation of neurogenesis.

Key words: reperfusion of cerebral ischemia, Wnt3a, dynamic change, rat