The present study assessed the cerebroprotective effect of platelet-activating factor (PAF) antagonists in transient cerebral ischemia of rats. Right middle cerebral artery (MCA) of Sprague-Dawley rats was occluded for 2 hours using an intraluminal filament technique, and was reperfused for 6 hours following cerebral ischemia. The infarct area of seven coronal brain slices was measured morphometrically following staining in the 2% 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride solution. The changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and pial arteriolar diameter were measured by laser-Doppler flowmetry and by a videomicroscopy, respectively. The infarct size was significantly reduced by PAF antagonists, BN 52021 and CV-6209, which were administered i.p. 10 min before MCA occlusion. Pretreatment with PAF antagonists significantly restored the changes in pial arterial diameter as well as those in rCBF during the period of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. PAF antagonists significantly inhibited the inducible nitric oxide synthase activity in the pial arteries ipsilateral to ischemia. These results suggest that PAF antagonists exert a cerebroprotective effect against ischemic brain damage through an improvement of postocclusive cerebral blood flow.