Aim To investigate the effect of grape seed procyanidins on cytokines,nitric oxide synthase and blood-brain barrier and the pathological changes after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in mice. Methods The incomplete cerebral ischemia-reperfusion mice models were induced by occlusion of both common carotid arteries for 30 min and reperfusion for 72 h.Distilled water,grape seed procyanidins(10,20 and 40 mg/kg) or Nimdipine(2 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally during the bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion and again at 24 h after reperfusion.An injection of 2% Evans blue into tail veins was conducted 1 h before the animals were sacrificed.The levels of interleukin-1β,nitric oxide synthase activities and content of Evans blue in the brain tissue were examined by ABC-ELISA method and spectrophotometry respectively.Meanwhile,the pathological changes of CA1 area of hippocampus were observed by light microscope. Results The levels of interleukin-1β,nitric oxide synthase activities and content of Evans blue in the brain tissue were significantly increased(p<0.01),but the levels of interleukin-10 were decreased compared with those in the sham surgery group.The levels of interleukin-1β,nitric oxide synthase activities and content of Evans blue in the brain tissue in the grape seed procyanidins or Nimdipine treated group had different decrease while the levels of interleukin-10 had different increase compared with those in the ischemia-reperfusion group.Pathological examination showed that grape seed procyanidins could significantly protect brain from ischemia-reperfusion injury,reduce the necrosis of neuron. Conclusion Grape seed procyanidins exerted an protective effect on the cerebral ischemic reperfused brain as evidenced by increasing the levels of anti-inflammatory cytokine such as interleukin-10 but reducing the levels of proinflammatory cytokine such as interleukin-1β,nitric oxide synthase activities as well as permeability of blood-brain barrier.