Rutaecarpine Protects Mice from Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Neuroinflammation and Cognitive Impairment
Objective To investigate the effect and mechanism of rutaecarpine in mitigating the learning and memory impairment induced by lipopolysaccharide in C57BL/6N mice.Methods Fifty-four 7-week-old C57BL/6N mice were selected and qualified by Morris water maze and assigned by the random number table method into 6 groups:nor-mal,model,donepezil(5 mg/kg),and low-,medium-,and high-dose(0.97,3.03,and 9.00 mg/kg,respectively)ru-taecarpine.Except that the normal group received injection of equal volume of normal saline,other groups received intraper-itoneal injection of 2 mg/kg lipopolysaccharide solution for modeling.After the successful modeling,mice in the normal and model groups were administrated with 0.9% normal saline,and those in other groups with corresponding drugs.Two weeks later,Morris water maze test was conducted to evaluate the memory of mice in each group.The hippocampus was collected and stained with hematoxylin-eosin and terminal-deoxynucleoitidyl transferase-mediated nick-end labeling.The lev-els of tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α,malondialdehyde(MDA),glutathione peroxidase(GSH-PX),glutathione(GSH),interleukin(IL-6),and IL-10 in the hippocampus were determined by kits.Results Compared with the normal group,the model group showed decreased times of crossing the platform,increased time and distance on the platform,elevated lev-els of TNF-α,MDA,IL-6,and IL-10,lowered levels of GSH-PX and GSH,and reduced hippocampal neurons.Com-pared with the model group,5 mg/kg donepezil and 0.97,3.03,and 9.00 mg/kg rutaecarpine increased the times of cross-ing the platform,reduced the time and distance on the platform,lowered the levels of TNF-α,MDA,IL-10,and IL-6,and reduced neuronal damage.In addition,5 mg/kg donepezil and 3.03 and 9.00 mg/kg rutaecarpine elevated the levels of GSH-PX and GSH.Conclusion Rutaecarpine can mitigate the learning and memory impairment of C57BL/6N mice by reducing inflammation and oxidative stress and repairing hippocampal damage in the brain.