Abstract: ObjectiveTo study the effect of enriched rehabilitative training on the functional recovery and neuronal dentritic growth following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion.Methods32 male Wistar rats,weighting 180～200 g,were randomly divided into a ischemic group(n=16) and a sham-operation group(n=16) after beforehand trainings.Rats were subjected to 2 h of right middle cerebral artery occlusion before reperfusion.After surgery,the ischemic group were randomly divided into a ischemia + enrichment(IE) group and a ischemia + standard housing(IS) group;the sham-operation group were randomly divided into a sham + enrichment(SE) group and a sham + standard housing(SS) group.After 24 h reperfusion,IE and SE groups were housed in enriched cages,and given enriched rehabilitative training according to the scheme.At the same time,IS and SS groups were housed in standard cages without any training.The functions of 4 groups were evaluated at 24 h,1 week,2 weeks,3 weeks and 4 week after operation.Dentritic growth of layer V pyramidal cells of the undamaged forelimb motor cortex was examined using Golgi-Cox procedure.ResultsIE group showed better function than IS group in all behavioral test.There was no significant difference in limb-placement test at 3 weeks(P>0.05) and in footfault test at 4 weeks(P>0.05) after operation between IE and SE group.The mean of basilar dentrite branching points in IE group was significantly greater than that of other groups(P<0.01).ConclusionEnriched rehabilitative training can promote functional recovery and enhance neural plasticity after cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion in rats.

Key words: cerebral ischemia/reperfusion, enriched rehabilitative training, rehabilitation, neural plasticity, pyramidal neurons, dentrite, rat