The present study evaluated the therapeutic potential of soybean nano-isoflavone extract versus bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells derived extracellular exosomes (BMSCs-EXs) in experimentally induced neurodegenerative diseases in rats (ND). In this study, 36 albino male rats were divided into four groups: Group I (control rats); Group II (induced neurodegenerative disease in rats by intraperitoneal injection of d-galactose (120 mg/kg/day for 2 months); Group III (ND-induced rats treated with nano-isoflavone in doses of 10 mg/kg by oral gavage for 3 months); and Group IV (ND-induced rats treated with a single dose injection of BMSCs-EXs. The effect of BMSCs-EXs was evaluated by cerebral oxidant/antioxidant biomarkers, and mRNA gene expression quantitation for cerebral tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), inducible nitric oxide synthase (i-NOS) and GAPDH pathway-encoding genes by real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques. Then, histopathological examination of the cerebral cortical tissues. Our results showed that BMSC-EXs were successfully isolated and characterized. d-galactose produced a significant rise in the number of damaged neurons, decreased cerebral superoxide dismutase and catalase activities, increased cerebral malondialdehyde levels, downregulated the cerebral TNF-α, and i-NOS pathway-encoding genes. Furthermore, BMSC-EXs and nano-isoflavone treatments repaired damaged cerebral tissue and recovered its function greatly following induction of neurodegenerative disease. Treatment with either MSCs-EXs or nano-isoflavones led to significant improvement in the histological findings, reversed the degenerative effect of d-galactose, and had a favorable therapeutic utility against d- galactose-induced neurodegenerative disease.
Keywords: Gene expression; Mesenchymal stem cells exosomes; Neurodegenerative disease; Soy isoflavones; TNF-α; iNOS.
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