Origanum vulgare prevents kaolin–induced hydrocephalus via regulation of GFAP and lba1 proteins expression in the rat brain

Abstract Background:The reactive gliosis contributes to patterns of hydrocephalus injury and recovery. The study aimed at evaluating Origanum vulgare essential oil (OEO) effects on reactive astrogliosis and reduced lateral ventricle thickness in kaolin-induced hydrocephalic rats. Methods and Results: Thirty male Wistar rats received kaolin via a direct injection into the cisterna magna and compared to control animals. After 21 day post-injection of kaolin, the hydrocephalic rats were randomly divided to four groups and experimental groups underwent magnetic resonance imaging to determine the lateral ventricle volume. Rats received different doses of OEO for 10 days. The lateral ventricular dilatation was evaluated by MRI. Also to assess the Iba-1 and GFAP proteins’ expression level, immunohistochemistry test and western blot analysis were performed 10 days after the injection. The results showed lateral ventricular size in the OEO-treated hydrocephalic rats was smaller than that of those receiving kaolin without OEO. The hydrocephalic rats increased reactive astrocytes and reactive microglia compared to the OEO-treated animals based on GFAP and Iba-1 immunoreactivity results. The findings were confirmed by western blot. There were significant differences between the hydrocephalus control and the 200 mg/kg/day OEO-treated rats in terms of GFAP and Iba-1 expression levels. Conclusions: In nonclusions, the OEO treated groups had stabilized ventricular expansion compared to hydrocephalus rats. Findings of the study showed that OEO can restrain the hydrocephalus-associated damage in rat brain induced by kaolin, likely by reducing GFAP and Iba-1 and therefore the OEO intervention, might be useful as a new treatment strategy.