The involvement of astrocytes and correlation between neuronal injury and astrocyte response were studied. Blockingmiddle cerebral artery and reperfusing o. 5～48 h, H-E staining, immunoccytochemistry single-and double-labeling, dotble label-ing combined with TUNEL and GFAP immunocytochemistry were used to investigate neuronal injury and astrocyte response.The is chemic area peaked at 24 h of reperfusion. The neurons presented irreversible degeneration at 6 h of reperfusion. At24 h,ischemic area in the preoptic area developed into infarcted area; astrocytes exhibited differential morphological features: reactive,malnourished and degenerative changes. At 48 h of reperfusion, the number of astrocytes began to go up. The astrocytes in is-chemic area didn't proliferate within 48 h. By contrast, a few astrocytes underwent apoptosis. In conclusion, these data indicatethat the reaction of astrocytes is closely connected with the extent of neuronal injuries. The reactive astrocytes imply that astro-cytes positively respond to the neuronal injuries, which might play a role in promoting neuronal survival.