Background: Prenatal stress (PS) can cause brain retardation, reduce the learning and memory ability of the offspring and significantly increase the incidence of depression in offspring. Paeoniflorin (PF), a kind of monoterpenoid glycoside, is one of the main active ingredients of Chinese Medicine Paeonia lactiflora Pall, has anti-inflammation and potential neuroprotective effects. However, few reports have shown that the neuroprotective effects of PF are exerted through ameliorating Glutamate toxicity in vivo and in vitro.
Methods: Here, we used a prenatal restraint stress model and Glu-induced excitotoxic neurotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells to study the effects of PF.
Results: Our results showed that PF can ameliorate learning and memory impairments and increases the density of hippocampal neurons, typical Golgi-positive pyramidal cells, and neuronal Neurogranin (Ng) expression in PS rat offspring. Furthermore, PF can significantly up-regulate the decrease of Glu-induced SH-SY5Y cell viability. At the same time, PF can significantly reduce apoptosis, ROS, NO levels, and intracellular Ca2+ concentration, and significantly inhibit the increase of mitochondrial membrane potential. Besides, PF significantly increased the expression of Nrf2 and iNOS, decreased p-JNK/JNK, p-P38/P38, Bax/Bcl-2, active-caspase-3, and active-caspase-9.
Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that PF may be an effective treatment in preventing the development of PS-induced learning and memory impairment and have therapeutic potential in Glu-related neurological diseases.
Keywords: Glutamate; Nrf2; Paeoniflorin; SH-SY5Y; oxidase stress; prenatal stress.
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