Hydrogen alleviates hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage in neonatal rats by inhibiting injury of brain pericytes.
Li H, Sun H, Li S, Huang L, Zhang M, Wang S, Liu Q, Ying J, Zhao F, Su X, Mu D, Qu Y. · 2024.
What kind of evidence is this?
Preclinical
Controlled neonatal-rat and pericyte study
Other neurological conditions
H₂-rich water
Positive preclinical signal.
Animal functional, tissue and mechanistic cell outcomes.
Methods at a glance
Neonatal rats with hypoxic-ischemic brain injury and oxygen-glucose-deprived brain pericytes.
Animal and cell groups with assay-specific counts reported in the full article.
Acute neonatal-injury and cell-exposure protocol.
Different doses of hydrogen-rich water in vivo and different concentrations in cultured pericytes.
H₂ dissolved in water or culture medium.
Dose- and concentration-specific conditions are reported in the article.
Not applicable.
No oxygen was co-delivered as part of the H₂ intervention.
Injury controls, hydrogen doses and cell-death inhibitor comparisons.
Outcomes and reported result
Neurological function, cerebrovascular and tissue injury, oxidative stress, pericyte death and Nrf2/HO-1 signaling.
Hydrogen-rich water was reported to reduce pericyte oxidative injury and several cerebrovascular, tissue and functional injury measures in the tested models.
The full article was checked for methods, intervention details, outcomes, positive and null findings, funding and conflicts. This record does not imply medical efficacy.
A reported association, difference or mechanism is not automatically a clinical benefit. Null findings, outcome type, study design and precision all matter.
Cautions and applicability
Preclinical evidence only; multiple doses, cell-death pathways and correlated endpoints.
The reported neonatal-rat and pericyte models only.
SYRCLE animal-study tool — preliminary
Some concerns
Controls were used, but allocation concealment, blinded assessment and multiplicity handling were not fully established.
Sequence generation checked where reported · Allocation concealment generally unclear · Personnel blinding generally unclear · Outcome-assessor blinding generally unclear · No prospectively registered analysis plan identified
No single-study GRADE certainty rating is assigned. Certainty is assessed by important outcome across a complete eligible evidence set, not by attaching a final grade to one source.
Sources and record status
PMID: 39001579 · DOI: 10.1111/jcmm.18505
A free full article is available through PubMed Central.
Official PubMed Central full article and PubMed bibliographic record; source identity, methods, intervention, results, funding and conflicts checked 10 August 2026.
2026-08-10