Hydrogen Gas Protects Brain After Stroke by Reducing Cell Damage
- Authors
- Yan Zhan, Chunhua Chen, Hidenori Suzuki, Qin Hu, Xinggang Zhi, John H. Zhang
- Journal
- Critical Care Medicine
- Year
- 2012
- DOI
- 10.1097/CCM.0b013e31823da96d
- Study Type
- Rat
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Subarachnoid Hemorrhage
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Inhaling hydrogen gas shortly after a brain hemorrhage can reduce brain swelling, protect the brain, and improve recovery in rats.
Key Finding
Hydrogen gas inhalation reduced brain swelling, improved neurological function, and decreased cell death in rats with a specific type of brain injury, with effects most pronounced at 24 hours after injury.
Summary
Researchers gave rats a brain injury similar to a type of stroke, then had some breathe hydrogen gas for 2 hours. They found that hydrogen gas reduced brain swelling, improved nerve function, and decreased cell death at 24 hours after injury. The benefits appeared to work by reducing harmful molecules called free radicals that damage cells. However, these protective effects were no longer visible by 72 hours.
Practical Takeaway
This is early-stage animal research showing hydrogen gas may have protective effects immediately after certain types of brain injury. However, this was only tested in rats, not humans, and the benefits appeared temporary (lasting less than 3 days). Much more research would be needed before any conclusions could be drawn about hydrogen's usefulness in human brain injury.
Abstract
Hydrogen gas has been demonstrated to neutralize free radicals and reduce oxidative stress recently. Our objective was to determine the therapeutic effect of H2 inhalation and its antioxidative activity on early brain injury after subarachnoid hemorrhage. Controlled in vivo laboratory study. Animal research laboratory. One hundred thirty-seven adult male Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 280-350 g. Subarachnoid hemorrhage was induced by endovascular perforation method in rats. Subarachnoid hemorrhage rats were treated with 2.9% hydrogen gas inhaled for 2 hrs after perforation. At 24 and 72 hrs, mortality, body weight, neurologic deficits, and brain water content were assessed. Blood-brain barrier permeability and apoptosis were also measured at 24 hrs. To investigate the antioxidative activity of hydrogen gas, the expression of malondialdehyde, nitrotyrosine, and 8-hydroxyguanosine, which are oxidative markers of lipid, protein, and DNA damage, respectively, were measured at 24 hrs. Hydrogen gas significantly alleviated brain edema and blood-brain barrier disruption, reduced apoptosis, and improved neurologic function at 24 hrs but not 72 hrs after subarachnoid hemorrhage. These effects were associated with the amelioration of oxidative injury of lipid, protein, and DNA. Hydrogen gas could exert its neuroprotective effect against early brain injury after subarachnoid hemorrhage by its antioxidative activity.