Effect of RhoA inhibitor Y27632 on propofol-induced apoptosis of hippocampal neurons in neonatal rats

Abstract

Objective To investigate the effect of RhoA inhibitor Y27632 on the apoptosis of hippocampal neurons in neonatal rats induced by propofol. Methods Forty-eight neonatal Sprague Dawley (SD) rats at postnatal day 7 (P7) were randomly divided into normal saline group (NS group), RhoA inhibitor group (Y27632 group), Propofol group (Pro group) and RhoA inhibitor+ Propofol group (Y27632+ Pro group). NS group and Pro group were administrated intraperitoneally with 150μl normal saline.Twenty minutes later, Y27632 group and Y27632+ Pro group were administrated intraperitoneally with 1 mg·kg-1 Y27632.And then the Pro group and Y27632+ Pro group were exposed to propofol with first administration 30 mg·kg-1 and repeated administration 15 mg·kg-1for five times once an hour.Twenty-four hours after the final dose of the propofol, TUNEL was used to detect neuronal apoptosis of the hippocampal cells (n=6). And then, Western blot was used to test the proteins expression of cleaved caspase-3, calpainⅡ, Bcl-2 and Bax (n=6). Results (1) The number of TUNEL positive cells in the hippocampal CA1 region were increased by 208.7% in Pro group ((84.10±12.03)/mm2) compared with that in NS group((27.24±6.29)/mm2) (P 0.05). Conclusion RhoA inhibitor Y27632 can alleviate the hippocampus neuronal apoptosis of neonatal rat induced by propofol. Key words: Propofol; RhoA inhibitor; Hippocampus; Apoptosis