Radiation encephalopathy is the main complication of cranial radiotherapy.It can cause necrosis of brain tissue and cognitive dysfunction

to which no ideal prevention method is available until now.Hydroxysaffor yellow A(HSYA) is the main active ingredient of the traditional Chinese medicine safflower

with protective effects against cerebral ischemic injury.In this work

we investigated the protective effects of HSYA on brain injury in mice irradiated by 300 MeV/u 12C6+ ion beam.The whole head of male Kunming mouse was irradiated to 4.0 Gy after receiving daily intra-peritoneal injection HSYA for 3 d.One month later

the Morris water maze test was used to detect the spatial memory in mice.The Evans blue was used as the tracer to evaluate the permeability of blood-brain barrier.The SOD activity and MDA content in brain tissue were assayed by test kits.The results showed that the12C6+ irradiation significantly impaired the spatial learning and memory in mice

increased the permeability of blood-brain barrier and the MDA content in brain tissue

whereas decreased the SOD activity in brain tissue.The pretreatment with HSYA could improve the spatial memory deficits and inhibit the changes of the blood-brain barrier

the SOD activity and the MDA content in brain tissue in mice.All these demonstrate that HSYA possesses the protective effect against brain injury induced by12C6+particle therapy.