A Comparison of Motor Functional Recovery and Brain Damage between Striatal Lesions Induced by Ischemia and Hemorrhage in Rats

Background: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the natural recovery process and tissue injury associated with cerebral hemorrhage and cerebral infarction, which were induced to the same degree, in the striatum of rats. Methods: Male Wistar rats were divided into intracerebral hemorrhagic (ICH) and ischemia (ISC) groups, with the ICH group injected with a collagenase solution and the ISC group injected with an endothelin-1 solution. In the SHAM group, physiological saline was injected. Motor function was evaluated by the ladder and forelimb placing tests on the first day before surgery and the first, seventh, and 14th day after surgery. On day 15 after surgery, brain tissue was harvested and frozen sections were prepared. Nissl staining was performed, and the tissue loss, ventricular, and hemispheric volumes were analyzed. Results: On the first day of surgery, the ICH group had significantly decreased motor function compared with the ISC group. However, subsequent recovery of motor function was faster in the ICH group than that in the ISC group. In addition, tissue loss and hemispheric volumes were significantly higher in the ISC group than those in the ICH group, whereas the ventricular volume was significantly higher in the ICH group than that in the ISC group. Conclusions: Collectively, our findings indicate that, in ICH and ISC where the brain damage involves the same site and is approximately the same size, motor function is recovered faster in ICH than that in ISC. As such, differences in secondary degeneration are likely affected.