Effects of melatonin on the nitric oxide system and protein nitration in the hypobaric hypoxic rat hippocampus

BMC Neuroscience

Research Article

Ching-Hsiang Wu¹  I-Hua Wei²  Pin-I Fu²  Mang-Hung Tsai²  Ya-Chieh Wu³  Chih-Chia Huang⁴  Kuang-Ti Chen⁵  Chia-Jou Lai⁵  Ming-Jia Jou⁶ 

[1] Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, 250 Wuxing Street, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Anatomy, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, Taiwan;Department of Nursing, Ching-Kuo Institute of Management and Health, 336, Fu-Hsin Road, Keelung, Taiwan;Department of Psychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, Taiwan;Institute of Clinical Medical Science, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, Taiwan;Department of Psychiatry, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, Taiwan;Institute of Basic Medical Science, China Medical University, No. 91 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, Taiwan;School of Chinese Medicine for Post Baccalaureate, I Shou University, No. 1, Sec. 1, Syuecheng Road, Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan;

关键词: Hippocampus;    Hypobaric hypoxia;    Nitric oxide;    Protein nitration;    Melatonin;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12868-015-0199-6

 received in 2015-05-26, accepted in 2015-09-08,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIt is well documented that the nitric oxide (NO) might be directly involved in brain response to hypobaric hypoxia, and could contribute to memory deficiencies. Recent studies have shown that melatonin could attenuate hypoxia or ischemia-induced nerve injuries by decreasing the production of free radicals. The present study, using immunohistochemical and immunoblot methods, aimed to explore whether melatonin treatment may affect the expression of nitric oxide system and protein nitration, and provide neuroprotection in the rat hippocampus injured by hypobaric hypoxia. Prior to hypoxic treatment, adult rats were pretreated with melatonin (100 mg/kg, i.p.) before they were exposed to the altitude chamber with 48 Torr of the partial oxygen concentration (pO2) for 7 h to mimic the ambience of being at 9000 m in height. They were then sacrificed after 0 h, 1, and 3 days of reoxygenation.ResultsThe results obtained from the immunohistochemical and immunoblotting analyses showed that the expressions of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS), endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), nitrotyrosine (Ntyr) and Caspase 3 in the hypoxic hippocampus were increased from 0 h to 3 days of reoxygenation. Interestingly, the hypoxia-induced increase of nNOS, eNOS, iNOS, Ntyr and Caspase 3 protein expression was significantly depressed in the hypoxic rats treated with melatonin.ConclusionsActivation of the nitric oxide system and protein nitration constitutes a hippocampal response to hypobaric hypoxia and administration of melatonin could provide new therapeutic avenues to prevent and/or treat the symptoms produced by hypobaric hypoxia.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Huang et al. 2015