Objective To investigate the correlations between vascular dementia and neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), fibroblast growth factor (FGF). Methods Female and male Wistar senile rats were divided into the control group and the operation groups at random. The operation groups consisted of the cerebral ischemia 15 min group and ischemia 15 min reperfusion groups in which the rats were reperfused at 0, 1st, 6th hour and on 2nd, 4th, 9th day with five rats per group. The expressions of NT-3 and FGF in hippocampus and thalamus were examined in different periods of ischemia-reperfusion with ABC method of immunohistochemistry. Results There was a little expressions of NT-3 and FGF in hippocampus and thalamus of normal senile rats; the expression of NT-3 in hippocampus increased quickly and steadily from 1 h to 4 d after ischemia-reperfusion! there were significant differences compared with control group (P0. 05). The expression of FGF in hippocampus increased from 6 h to 2 d after ischemia-reperfusion (P 0. 05). FGF in thalamus began to increase on 2nd day after ischemia-reperfusion and there were significant differences compared with control group (P0. 05). Conclusion Hippocampus has the protective mechanism of NT-3 and FGF against ischemia injury which is produced quickly and has endurable effects, but thalamus lacks the good protective mechanism of NT-3 and FGF.