Hydrogen Therapy Protects Brain After Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Authors
- Quiang Sun, Jianmei Cai, Jiangrui Zhou, Hengyi Tao, John H. Zhang, Wei Zhang, Xue-jun Sun
- Journal
- Critical Care Medicine
- Year
- 2011
- DOI
- 10.1097/CCM.0b013e318206bf44
- Study Type
- Rat
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Injecting rats with hydrogen-rich saline helped reduce brain damage and improve memory after severe carbon monoxide poisoning.
Key Finding
Hydrogen-rich saline injections reduced brain inflammation, oxidative damage, and cognitive decline in rats recovering from severe carbon monoxide poisoning, with treated animals showing better performance on memory tests.
Summary
Researchers exposed rats to high levels of carbon monoxide to mimic severe poisoning, then treated some with hydrogen-rich salt water injected into their abdomens. One week later, the hydrogen-treated rats showed less brain inflammation, less cell damage, and better memory performance on a swimming test compared to rats that received regular salt water. The improvements appeared to be due to hydrogen's ability to reduce harmful chemical reactions (oxidation) and calm down inflammatory responses in the brain.
Practical Takeaway
This is early-stage animal research showing hydrogen-rich saline may protect the brain after carbon monoxide poisoning, but it was only tested in rats, not humans. Before any clinical use in poisoning patients, human studies would be needed to confirm safety and effectiveness. The findings suggest hydrogen's anti-inflammatory properties warrant further investigation, but this does not establish a role for hydrogen water in everyday health.
Abstract
Objective: We investigated the feasibility and efficacy of hydrogen-rich saline therapy on delayed neurologic sequelae in a rat model of severe acute carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Design: Controlled animal study. Setting: University research laboratory for Diving Medicine. Subjects: Sprague-Dawley rats weighing 250 ± 20 g. Interventions: The rats were exposed to 1000 ppm CO in air for 40 min and then to 3000 ppm for another 20 min until they lost consciousness. Rats were intraperitoneal injected with hydrogen-rich saline or normal saline (10 mL/kg) for six times after resuscitation at 0, 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60 hrs, respectively. The rats without CO poisoning were used as normal controls. Measurements and main results: Brain tissue inflammation, cell death, and cognitive dysfunction were observed at one week after CO poisoning. Hydrogen-rich saline treatment significantly reduced the level of degraded myelin basic protein, decreased the expression of ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule 1, Iba1, a microglial marker, reduced DNA oxidation, and suppressed proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-1β, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-α in the cortex and hippocampal tissues when compared with those in normal saline-treated rats. These histologic and biological improvements were accompanied with an improvement in the Morris water maze test. Conclusions: This observation demonstrated that hydrogen-rich saline peritoneal injection improves histologic and functional assessment in a rat model of CO encephalopathy. Hydrogen saline has potentials as a novel and alternative therapy for severely CO-poisoned patients with delayed neurologic sequelae. The therapeutic effects of hydrogen-rich saline may be related to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.