Cerebral hypoxia-ischemia was produced in 7 day old rats by right common carotid artery occlusion combined with systemic hypoxia. In the hypoxic-ischemic group animals, striatal ACh contents on both sides were reduced to a significant extent in commensurate to AChE histochemical image analysis. All these changes could be restored to normal control by a protection dose (50 micrograms) of NGF intraventricularly injected.