Background Microglial polarization toward pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype are major contributors to the development of perioperative neurocognitive disorders (PNDs). Metabolic reprogramming plays an important role in regulating microglial polarization. We therefore hypothesized that surgical trauma can activate microglial M1 polarization by metabolic reprogramming to induce hippocampal neuroinflammation and subsequent postoperative cognitive impairment. Methods We used aged mice to establish a model of PNDs, and investigated whether surgical trauma induced metabolic reprograming in hippocampus using PET/CT and GC/TOF–MS based metabolomic analysis. We then determined the effect of the glycolytic inhibitor 2-deoxy-d-glucose (2-DG) on hippocampal microglial M1 polarization, neuroinflammation, and cognitive function at 3 d after surgery. Results We found that surgery group had less context-related freezing time than either control or anesthesia group (P < 0.05) without significant difference in tone-related freezing time (P > 0.05). The level of Iba-1 fluorescence intensity in hippocampus were significantly increased in surgery group than that in control group (P < 0.05) accompanied by activated morphological changes of microglia and increased expression of iNOS/CD86 (M1 marker) in enriched microglia from hippocampus (P < 0.05). PET/CT and metabolomics analysis indicated that surgical trauma provoked the metabolic reprogramming from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis in hippocampus. Inhibition of glycolysis by 2-DG significantly alleviated the surgical trauma induced increase of M1 (CD86+CD206−) phenotype in enriched microglia from hippocampus and up-regulation of pro-inflammatory mediators (IL-1β and IL-6) expression in hippocampus. Furthermore, glycolytic inhibition by 2-DG ameliorated the hippocampus dependent cognitive deficit caused by surgical trauma. Conclusions Metabolic reprogramming is crucial for regulating hippocampal microglial M1 polarization and neuroinflammation in PNDs. Manipulating microglial metabolism might provide a valuable therapeutic strategy for treating PNDs.

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Sevoflurane preconditioning has been proved to possess therapeutic effects on stress. However, the mechanism by which sevoflurane preconditioning protects against stress remains unclear. In this study, an acute model of heat stress in C.eleans was established. We investigated the dose-response of sevoflurane exposure on coordinated movement in C.elegans and time course for protection against heat stress of sevoflurane preconditioning to determine the optimal concentration and time point in the following experiments. EC99 of sevoflurane is 1.7% (1.3EC50) and sevoflurane preconditioning exerts the maximal protection at 6 hours after incubation, and these 2 parameters were used in our following experiments. We found that sevoflurane preconditioning increased DAF-16 nuclear translocation and enhanced the expression of DAF-16 during heat stress in N2 strain of C.elegans. DAF-16 mutation abolished the sevoflurane preconditioning-induced protection for heat stress. Furthermore, suppression of IMB-2 by RNAi prevented the upregulation of DAF-16 and enhancement of stress resistance caused by sevoflurane preconditioning. Overall, this work reveals that sevoflurane preconditioning increases the expression of DAF-16 via IMB-2 to enhance the stress resistance of C.elegans.

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