Abstract
Icariin is a prenylated flavonol glycoside derived from the Chinese herb Epimedium sagittatum. This study investigated the mechanism by which icariin prevents H2O2-induced apoptosis in rat nucleus pulposus (NP) cells. NP cells were isolated from the rat intervertebral disc and they were divided into five groups after 3 passages: (A) blank control; (B) 200 μM H2O2; (C) 200 μM H2O2 + 20 μM icariin; (D) 20 μM icariin + 200 μM H2O2 + 25 μM LY294002; (E) 200 μM H2O2 + 25 μM LY294002. LY294002 is a selective inhibitor of the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway. NP cell viability, apoptosis rate, intracellular reactive oxygen species levels, and the expression of AKT, p-AKT, p53, Bcl-2, Bax, caspase-3 were estimated. The results show that, compared with the control group, H2O2 significantly increased NP cell apoptosis and the level of intracellular ROS. Icariin pretreatment significantly decreased H2O2-induced apoptosis and intracellular ROS and upregulated p-Akt and BCL-2 and downregulated caspase-3 and Bax. LY294002 abolished the protective effects of icariin. Our results show that icariin can attenuate H2O2-induced apoptosis in rat nucleus pulposus cells and PI3K/AKT pathway is at least partly included in this protection effect.
Highlights
Low back pain (LBP) is a frequent musculoskeletal disorder worldwide that affects approximately 70% of the adult population sometime in their lives, and most result in musculoskeletal disability
Our findings suggest that H2O2 induces apoptosis in Nucleus pulposus (NP) cells and icariin prevents it through the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT signaling pathway
H2O2 can lead to cell dead and icariin alone has no cytotoxicity in NP cells; what is more, icariin can protect against the H2O2-induced cytotoxicity
Summary
Low back pain (LBP) is a frequent musculoskeletal disorder worldwide that affects approximately 70% of the adult population sometime in their lives, and most result in musculoskeletal disability. LBP can cause an enormous economic burden every year. LBP is a major disease that severely impacts human health and results in an enormous strain on limited medical resources [6]. Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is considered to be one of the main reasons for LBP [8]. Reversal of IVD degeneration is almost impossible due to the poor self-repairing ability of NP tissues
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