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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 24|pp 26121—26139

Subanesthetic isoflurane abates ROS-activated MAPK/NF-κB signaling to repress ischemia-induced microglia inflammation and brain injury

Zhiqiang Yao1,2, Ningning Liu3, Xiaoshan Zhu3, Ling Wang4, Yali Zhao3, Qinqin Liu3, Chunfang Gao3, Juntang Li3,5
  • 1Department of Interventional Neuroradiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450052, Henan, China
  • 2Department of Neurosurgery, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510282, Guangdong, China
  • 3Centre of Inflammation and Cancer Research, 150th Central Hospital of PLA, Luoyang 471031, Henan, China
  • 4Department of Anesthesiology, 150th Central Hospital of PLA, Luoyang 471031, Henan, China
  • 5Department of Immunology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi’an 710032, Shaanxi, China
* Equal contribution
Received: February 5, 2020Accepted: November 16, 2020Published: December 28, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202349

Copyright: © 2020 Yao et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Isoflurane (ISO) elicits protective effects on ischemia-induced brain injury. We investigated whether sub-anesthetic (0.7%) ISO post-conditioning attenuates the inflammation and apoptosis in oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)-insulted co-cultures (microglia and neurons) in vitro and the brain injury of the middle cerebral arterial occlusion (MCAO) rat. We demonstrated that ISO augmented the viability of OGD-treated microglia and neurons. ISO reduced the expression and activation of COX2 and iNOS in OGD-challenged microglia. ISO repressed the production of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 in OGD-exposed microglia. ISO also decreased nucleosomal fragmentation and caspase-3 activity but increased mitochondrial membrane potential in OGD-stimulated microglia and neurons. Mechanistically, ISO suppressed OGD-induced microglial inflammation by blocking ROS-regulated p38 MAPK/NF-κB signaling pathway and hampered OGD-triggered microglial apoptosis in a ROS- or NO-dependent fashion. In vivo results with MCAO rats were partly consistent with the in vitro observation. These findings indicate that sub-anesthetic ISO post-conditioning abates the inflammation and apoptosis in OGD-stimulated rat microglia and the apoptosis of OGD-exposed neurons and the brain injuries of MCAO rats, suggesting it as a potentially effective therapeutic approach for ischemic brain damages.