Open AccessMethylprednisolone exerts neuroprotective effects by regulating autophagy and apoptosis
Author(s) -
Wei Gao,
Shu-rui Chen,
Mengyao Wu,
Kai Gao,
Yuanlong Li,
Hongyu Wang,
Chenyuan Li,
Hong Li
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
neural regeneration research/neural regeneration research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.93
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1876-7958
pISSN - 1673-5374
DOI - 10.4103/1673-5374.182711
Subject(s) - autophagy , methylprednisolone , neuroprotection , apoptosis , western blot , downregulation and upregulation , viability assay , pharmacology , flow cytometry , mtt assay , chemistry , medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , immunology , anesthesia , biochemistry , gene
Methylprednisolone markedly reduces autophagy and apoptosis after secondary spinal cord injury. Here, we investigated whether pretreatment of cells with methylprednisolone would protect neuron-like cells from subsequent oxidative damage via suppression of autophagy and apoptosis. Cultured N2a cells were pretreated with 10 µM methylprednisolone for 30 minutes, then exposed to 100 µM H2O2 for 24 hours. Inverted phase contrast microscope images, MTT assay, flow cytometry and western blot results showed that, compared to cells exposed to 100 µM H2O2 alone, cells pretreated with methylprednisolone had a significantly lower percentage of apoptotic cells, maintained a healthy morphology, and showed downregulation of autophagic protein light chain 3B and Beclin-1 protein expression. These findings indicate that methylprednisolone exerted neuroprotective effects against oxidative damage by suppressing autophagy and apoptosis.