Abstract: AIM: To evaluate the effects of the com-bination of ketamine (KT) and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) on damage following cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in ICR mice. METHODS: Male ICRmice were randomly divid-ed into seven groups:Sham group, NS (saline 0.1 ml°kg^-1) group, KT (15 mg°kg^-1) group, NAC (75 mg°kg^-1) group, NAC+KT (75+15 mg°kg^-1) group. (1) ICR mice underwent two hours cerebral ischemia by transient right middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) and followed 6 h and 24 h reperfusion. Then brainswere prepared for the determination of the infarction volume. Before the death, neurological deficits were scored. (2) ICRmice subjected to five minutes ischemia by two com-mon carotid arteries occlusion (2-VO) and followed 0.5, 2 and 6 h reperfusion.Brains were prepared for the deter-mination of the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and the content of MDA.RESULTS: (1) tMCAO produced severe neuro-logical deficits, decreased the average score and brought about large infarction volume. KT, NAC showed the im-provement of the average score and reduced infarction vol-ume to some extent, and KT +NAC improved significant-ly. (2) The content of the MDA, the activities of GSH-Px and SOD in 2-VO mice deteriorated sharply, KT, NAC reduced the content of the MDA, enhanced the ac-tivities of GSH-Px and SOD, NAC +KT significantly ameliorated the levels of MDA, increased the activity of SOD and GSH-Px. CONCLUSION: The damage of cerebral ischemia/reperfusion leads to the decrease of neurological score, the increase of infarction volume, the reduction of activities of SOD and GSH-Px and the eleva-tion of MDA.KT and NAC partly relieve the damage, and NAC and KT in combination attenuates the damage more effectively.

Key words: cerebral, ischemia, reperfusion, ke-tamine, N-acetylcysteine, combination drug therapy