Abstract
Recent evidences suggest that microglial activation and neuroinflammation participate in the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD). Consequently, they are useful targets to estimate the efficiency of neuroprotection. Diosgenin, a saponin aglycon found in a variety of plants and the major steroid sapogenin contained in the Chinese yam, has shown potential anti-inflammatory properties. In this study, we investigated the ability of diosgenin to protect neurons against lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced neuroinflammation by decreasing cytokines and nitric oxide (NO) production in the microglia which are caused by reactive microgliosis. Pre-treatment of diosgenin reduced activated microglial cell body area of 22%, decreased inducible NOS (iNOS) mRNA expression quantities by 68.6%, and attenuated NO release of 63% induced by LPS stimulation. In the PD animal model, brain tissue in substantia nigra of midbrain from rats pre-treated with diosgenin showed decreased interleukin-1 beta (IL-1β) and integrin alpha M (ITGAM) mRNA expression. Furthermore, brain neuronal damage was also attenuated showed by significant decrease of 43% circles based on rotational behavior assay. The results suggest that the neuroprotective effect of diosgenin can be applied to the inhibition of microglial activation and demonstrate the ability of diosgenin to protect dopaminergic neurons from LPS-induced injury.
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