Preconditioning of gerbil brain with a sublethal forebrain ischemia is known to protect hippocampal CA1 neurons following a subsequent lethal ischemia (the second ischemia) which usually damages neurons (ischemic tolerance). Present report using a confocal laser scanning microscope demonstrated that the hippocampal cells of sham operation gerbils contained immunofluorescent NGF and BDNF and their high-affinity receptors (TrkA and TrkB). A 2-min ischemia caused little change of these proteins (ANOVA test, P<0.05). After the second lethal ischemia, in the CA1 area with ischemic preconditioning (2-min ischemia), only BDNF but not NGF and their high-affinity receptors showed a transient reduction at 4 h (ANOVA test, P<0.01) and improved from 1 day (ANOVA test, P<0.05). In the CA1 area without ischemic preconditioning (sham operation), NGF and its high-affinity TrkA receptor showed a consistent reduction from 4 h to 7 days (ANOVA test, P<0.05); BDNF and TrkB decreased transiently from 4 h to 1 day (ANOVA test, P<0.05) but were recovered in the surviving neurons from 3 days. At 3 and 7 days after the second lethal ischemia, apoptotic cell injury could be seen in the CA1 area without ischemic preconditioning but was sparsely noted in the CA1 area with ischemic preconditioning. In the ischemia-resistant CA3 and dentate gyrus areas, only BDNF decreased significantly at 7 days in the CA3 area without ischemic preconditioning (ANOVA test, P<0.01). However, no significant change occurred in NGF, TrkA and TrkB immunofluorescence from 4 h to 7 days after the second lethal ischemia in the CA3 and dentate gyrus areas with and without ischemic preconditioning. Western blot study showed that in the hippocampal formation with ischemic preconditioning, preconditioning prevented the decline of these protein levels from 1 day to 7 days after the second lethal ischemia (ANOVA test, P>0.05). Results of this study demonstrate that ischemic preconditioning recovers the initial decline in NGF and BDNF and their corresponding receptors in the vulnerable CA1 neurons after the second lethal ischemia, suggesting that growth factors might play a role in the protective mechanism of ischemic preconditioning.