title: Remifentanil postconditioning improves global cerebral ischemia-induced spatial learning and memory deficit in rats via inhibition of neuronal apoptosis through the PI3K signaling pathway.
abstract: Global cerebral ischemia followed by reperfusion, which leads to extensive neuronal damage, particularly the neurons in the hippocampal CA1 region. Apoptosis is one of the major mechanisms that lead to neuronal death after cerebral ischemia and reperfusion. The neuroprotective effects of remifentanil preconditioning against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury have been recently reported. Here we investigated whether remifentanil postconditioning exerts neuroprotective effects against global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats and its potential mechanisms. Global cerebral ischemia was performed via 10 min of four-vessel occlusion. Terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling positive cells and expression of Bcl-2 and Bax in the hippocampal CA1 region were assessed after reperfusion. Morris water maze task was used to quantify spatial learning and memory deficits after reperfusion. We found remifentanil postconditioning markedly improved the spatial learning and memory as well as attenuated neuronal apoptosis in hippocampus caused by cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. In addition, remifentanil postconditioning enhanced the expression of anti-apoptotic gene Bcl-2 while suppressed the expression of pro-apoptotic gene Bax in hippocampal CA1 region. However, the neuroprotective effects of remifentanil postconditioning were abolished by pretreatment of the PI3K inhibitor LY294002. The results suggest that remifentanil postconditioning exhibits neuroprotective effects against global cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats, and its mechanisms might involve inhibition of neuronal apoptosis through the PI3K pathway.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, 678 Furong Road, Hefei, 230601, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xianwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Chunlin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Shufang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Lingling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000188:drug therapy*; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000502:physiology; D000081082:Phosphoinositide-3 Kinase Inhibitors; D010880:Piperidines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D000077208:Remifentanil; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D000081082:Phosphoinositide-3 Kinase Inhibitors; D010880:Piperidines; D000077208:Remifentanil