Abstract
Heat stroke (HS) is the most acute type of heat illness accompanied with serious central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction. Despite the pathological process being clearly studied, effective treatment is deficient. Currently, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been demonstrated to have neuroprotective effects as there are no old ones. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to explore the neuroprotective effects and mechanisms of MSCs against HS-induced CNS injury. HS in rat models was induced by a high-temperature environment and treated with MSCs via the tail vein. The results demonstrated that MSC injection significantly reduced the mortality and inhibited the circulation inflammatory response. Moreover, the HS-induced neurological deficit and neuronic damage of the hippocampus were significantly ameliorated by MSC administration. In addition, MSC administration significantly restored astrocytes and inhibited cerebral inflammatory response. These results indicate that MSC infusion has therapeutic effects in HS of rats by regulating the circulation and cerebral inflammatory response. Moreover, astrocytes increased in MSC-treated HS rats when compared with the untreated ones. This may suggest a potential mechanism for HS prevention and therapy through MSC administration.
Highlights
Heat stroke (HS) is the most serious type of heat illness which refers to the presence of hyperthermia and central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction [1, 2]
In the different stage phases, untreated HS rats demonstrated a higher mortality, whereas following the infusion of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the survival rate demonstrated a significant amelioration both in the early (3 days, Figure 2C) and long-lasting stages (28 days, Figure 2D). These results indicate that HS injury induced a paralysis symptom and high mortality in the rats, which could be ameliorated by MSC infusion
MSCtreated HS rats showed approaching normal levels of GFAP expression at both 3 and 28 days when compared with the same time point for untreated HS rats (Figures 5B,E). These results suggested that astrocytes restored in the MSC-treated HS rats when compared with the untreated ones, which indicated the correlation between MSC treatment and astrocytes increment
Summary
Heat stroke (HS) is the most serious type of heat illness which refers to the presence of hyperthermia (core body temperature that rises above 40◦C) and central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction [1, 2]. The cerebellum and hippocampus of the brain are vulnerable to HS which would induce a high rate of mortality or permanent neurological sequelae. Previous studies have identified that HS is a form of hyperthermia associated with a systemic inflammatory response that results in a syndrome of multi-organ dysfunction, coagulation activation, and fibrin formation which clinically manifests as disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) [1, 6, 7]. In the CNS, HS induces hypotension and intracranial hypertension which reduces blood flow to the brain and results in cerebral ischemia, hypoxia, and neuronal damage. This neurotoxic cascade involves an overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), cytokines, glutamate, and calcium ion [7, 8]. Another study indicated that HS can decrease learning ability and memory in rats, the mechanisms of which
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