Objective: To study the influence of Xuebijing injection on expression of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and tumour necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) during lipopolysaccharide-induced white matter damage in the prematured neonatal rat induced by intrauterine infection. Method: Twelve rats with pregnancy duration of 16 days were intra-peritoneally injected LPS 450 μg·kg-1for 2 day

and another 8 similar rats were injected with normal saline as the controls. The premature delivery was difined as a delivery before 22 days of pregnancy. Eight normal born rats from the controls were selected as the blank control group

and 24 premature delivered rats induced by LPS were selected as the models. The models were then divided into 3 groups:the model group

Xuebijing 4 g·kg-1 and Xuebijing 2 g·kg-1group

ip

for 14 d.The neurobehavior of rat was observed by suspention test. The expressin of GFAP and TNF-α were detected in brain sections by immunohistochemistry. Result: Compared with the Blank model control

Xuebijing low dose and high dose could improve the neurobehavior in rats (P<0.05);Compared with the model control group

expression of TNF-α was decreased and GFAP was increased in both dose groups of Xuebijing (P<0.05). Conclusion: Xuebijing injection can treat intrauterine infection-induced white matter damage in the prematured neonatal rat

the mechanism may be related to removal of TNF-α expression and increase in GFAP expression.