en Neurosciences Neurosciences Original Article Original Article <p><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="line-height:107%"><span style="color:black">Cerebral ischemia is a common neurodegenerative disease in which damage to the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is the main consequence. In cerebral ischemia, the level of miR-149-5p and tight junction proteins are decreased, while the level of Calpine is increased, finally leading to increased BBB permeability. This study investigated the effect of miR-149-5p mimic on the expression of Calpain, Occludin, and ZO-1 and the consequences of cerebral ischemia. Cerebral ischemia model was performed via middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) method on female Wistar rats. Four groups of Wistar rats were studied: Sham, cerebral ischemia without treatment, Scramble miR, and miR-149-5p mimic treatment. Then, neurological defects and BBB permeability (via Evans blue staining), cerebral edema (cerebrospinal fluid percentage), and ZO-1, Occludin, and Calapin expression (by quantitative real time- PCR) were investigated. qRT-PCR results showed miR-149-5p expression decreases after cerebral ischemia induction. In addition, Occludin and ZO-1 expression significantly increased in miR-149-5p group. In contrast, Calapin expression, BBB permeability, brain water content and neurological defects were significantly decreased. It seems that the increased level of miR-149-5p exerts its protective effect on cerebral ischemia due to increasing of tight junction proteins.</span></span></span></span></p> Cerebral ischemia, middle cerebral artery occlusion, miR-149-5p, tight junction 223 235 http://ijmcmed.org/browse.php?a_code=A-10-5100-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Meysam Forouzandeh foroozandeh.meysam67@gmail.com 100319475328460032627 100319475328460032627 No Faculty of Life Sciences, Shahid-Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Hossein Mostafavi mostafavih@zums.ac.ir 100319475328460032628 100319475328460032628 No Cancer Gene Therapy Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Elham Ghasemloo ghasemloo_e@yahoo.com 100319475328460032629 100319475328460032629 No Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Parvin Mohammadi pmohamadi90@yahoo.com 100319475328460032630 100319475328460032630 No Department of Medical Biotechnology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Masoumeh Hosseini mahozanjani@yahoo.com 100319475328460032631 100319475328460032631 No Laboratory Expert, Depertment of Physiology, School of Medicine, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran. Mehdi Eskandari mehdiesk@zums.ac.ir 100319475328460032632 100319475328460032632 Yes Cancer Gene Therapy Research Center, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.