Protective effects of minaprine on the cerebrum of rodents.

The cerebral protective effects of minaprine were examined using the following methods, i.e., complete ischemia by decapitation in mice, histotoxic anoxia by potassium cyanide (KCN) in mice, hypobaric hypoxia in mice, asphyxic anoxia in normal rats and cerebral ischemia induced by bilateral carotid artery occlusion (BCAO) in strokeprone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR-SP). Minaprine showed positive effects on all the mouse models. Minaprine led to an improvement in the hypoxia-induced impaired electroencephalogram activity, in normal rats. All vehicle-treated SHR-SP died within 20 hr after BCAO, whereas pretreatment with minaprine (50 mg/kg x 5 days) decreased the mortality within 20 hr after BCAO. Beneficial effects of minaprine for treating cerebral hypoxia, anoxia and ischemia are discussed.