Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor Alleviates Bacterial-Induced Neuronal Apoptotic Damage in the Neonatal Rat Brain through Epigenetic Histone Modification

Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2018 Feb 1:2018:9797146. doi: 10.1155/2018/9797146. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Bacterial meningitis during the perinatal period may cause long-term neurological deficits. The study investigated whether bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) derived from E. coli. led to neuronal apoptosis with an impaired performance of long-term cognitive function involving the activation of histone modification in the TNF-α gene promoter. Further, we looked into the therapeutic efficacy of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) in a neonatal brain suffering from perinatal bacterial meningitis. We applied the following research techniques: neurobehavioral tasks, confocal laser microscopy, chromatin immunoprecipitation, and Western blotting. At postnatal day 10, the animals were subjected to LPS and/or G-CSF. The target brain tissues were then collected at P17. Some animals (P45) were studied using neurobehavioral tasks. The LPS-injected group revealed significantly increased expression of NF-κB phosphorylation and trimethylated H3K4 in the TNFA gene promoter locus. Furthermore, the caspase-3, neuronal apoptosis expression, and an impaired performance in cognitive functions were also found in our study. Such deleterious outcomes described above were markedly alleviated by G-CSF therapy. This study suggests that selective therapeutic action sites of G-CSF through epigenetic regulation in the TNFA gene promoter locus may exert a potentially beneficial role for the neonatal brain suffering from perinatal bacterial-induced meningitis.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Animals, Newborn
  • Apoptosis / drug effects
  • Brain / drug effects
  • Brain / pathology
  • DNA Methylation / drug effects*
  • Epigenesis, Genetic / drug effects
  • Gene Expression Regulation / drug effects*
  • Gene Expression Regulation / genetics
  • Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor / pharmacology*
  • Histones / drug effects
  • Histones / genetics
  • Meningitis, Bacterial / pathology*
  • Neurons / drug effects
  • Neurons / pathology*
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic / drug effects
  • Promoter Regions, Genetic / genetics
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / biosynthesis
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / genetics

Substances

  • Histones
  • Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
  • Granulocyte Colony-Stimulating Factor