title: Icariin attenuates cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury through inhibition of inflammatory response mediated by NF-κB, PPARα and PPARγ in rats.
abstract: Icariin (ICA), an active flavonoid extracted from Chinese medicinal herb Epimedii, has been reported to exhibit many pharmacological effects including alleviating brain injury. However, little is known about the protection of ICA on ischemic stroke. Hence, this study was designed to investigate the neuroprotective effect of ICA and explore its underlying mechanisms on ischemic stroke induced by cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury in rats. The animals were pretreated with ICA at doses of 10, 30mg/kg twice per day for 3 consecutive days followed by cerebral I/R injury induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 2h and reperfusion for 24h. Neurological function and infarct volume were observed at 24h after reperfusion, the protein expression levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), PPARα and PPARγ, inhibitory κB-α (IκB-α) degradation and nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) p65 phosphorylation were detected by Western blot, respectively. It was found that pretreatment with ICA could decrease neurological deficit score, diminish the infarct volume, and reduce the protein levels of IL-1β and TGF-β1. Moreover, ICA suppressed IκB-α degradation and NF-κB activation induced by I/R. Furthermore, the present study also showed that ICA up-regulated PPARα and PPARγ protein levels. These findings suggest that ICA has neuroprotective effect on ischemic stroke in rats through inhibition of inflammatory responses mediated by NF-κB and PPARα and PPARγ.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
authors.forename: Deqing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xiong
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
authors.forename: Yuanyuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
authors.forename: Caixia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China.
authors.forename: Jingshan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, China. Electronic address: gqh@zmc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qihai
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gong
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D006801:Humans; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000188:drug therapy*; D053583:Interleukin-1beta / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism; D000066829:Neuroprotection; D047493:PPAR alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D047495:PPAR gamma / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats; D015427:Reperfusion Injury / Q000188:drug therapy*; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D005419:Flavonoids; D053583:Interleukin-1beta; D016328:NF-kappa B; D047493:PPAR alpha; D047495:PPAR gamma; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1; C046314:epimedii flavone; C056599:icariin
keywords: Cerebral ischemia; Icariin; Inflammation; Nuclear factor κB; Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor