Objective:To study the protective effect of Shenfu injection pretreatment on neonatal rats with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy(HIE).Methods:HIE model rats were randomly divided into three groups:sham operation group(S)

saline control group(C)

and Shenfu injection pretreatment group(SF).The experiment included two parts:one was to detect the heat shock protein HSP70 and HSP90 expression 24 h after hypoxia-ischemia(HI);the second was to measure the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax of neurons in left hippocampal CAI region.Results:There was less expression of HSP70 and HSP90 in S group 24 h after HI;the increase of HSP70 positive cells in group C(0.84±0.14)was significantly higher than that of group S(0.15±0.02)(P<0.01)

and HSP70 immunoreactive neurons were much more widely distributed in SF group(1.56±0.16)than in C group(P<0.05)there was no obvious difference in the expression of HSP90 between these groups.(P>0.05).The expression of Bcl-2(36.9±4.1)or Bax(16.5±2.3)in group SF was markedly higher or lower than that of group C(23.4±3.5;23.2±3.4)(P<0.05).Conclusion:The pretreatment of SF could enhance the tolerance to hypoxia ischemia by increasing HSP70 expression in neonatal rats with HIE

and significantly prevent apoptosis of hippocampus neurons from HI insult by up-regulation of the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 and down-regulation of the pro-apoptotic gene Bax.