dl-3-n-butylphthalide reduces brain damage in mice with closed head injury.

To investigate the protective effect of dl-3-n-butylphthalide (NBP) as an anti-cerebral ischemic drug on brain damage 24 h after closed head injury in mice.Closed head injury was induced by dropping a 50-g weight from a height of 18 cm on a metal impounder resting on the parietal bone in mice.The neurotraumatic model induced impairment of memory function, significant cerebral edema, and disruption of the blood-brain barrier. dl-3-n-butylphthalide (50 mg.kg-1) given intraperitoneally 5 minutes and 60 minutes after the onset of closed head injury was found to attenuate the impairment of memory function (P < 0.05), alleviate brain edema in the injured cerebral cortex (P < 0.05), and reduce extravasation of plasma protein bound to Evans blue dye by 63.5% (P < 0.01). NBP was also shown to increase the activity of choline acetyltransferase in the injured cortex to 0.83 +/- 0.21 ng.min-1.mg-1 (P < 0.01, compared with 0.48 +/- 0.14 ng.min-1.mg-1 of vehicle group).NBP provides therapeutic response in experimental closed head injury.