Neuroprotection of Total Steroid Saponins from Dioscorea zingiberensis against Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Rats via Anti-Inflammatory and Antiapoptotic Effects

Abstract

Total steroid saponins isolated from Dioscorea zingiberensis have shown a variety of beneficial bioactivities. However, there are no reports about their neuroprotective effects, until now. Therefore, in the present study, we explored the neuroprotective effects of the total steroid saponins from D. zingiberensis on rats against transient focal cerebral ischemia-reperfusion and their underlying mechanisms. Healthy adult Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to six groups. After pretreatment with D. zingiberensis total steroid saponins intragastrically for six days, the rats were subjected to an ischemia injury by surgery on the middle cerebral artery occlusion for 90 min. Compared to the ischemia-reperfusion group, the D. zingiberensis total steroid saponin group of rats, especially those given a 30-mg/kg dose, showed not only a marked reduction in neurological deficit scores, cerebral infarct volume, and brain edema, but also an increase in neuron survival (Nissl bodies) in the hippocampal cornuammons 1 and cortex hemisphere of the ipsilateral ischemia. At the same time, the inflammatory cytokines in serum induced by the middle cerebral artery occlusion were significantly decreased by the preadministration of D. zingiberensis total steroid saponins. Furthermore, the increase of caspase-3 was evidently reduced in the hippocampal cornuammons 1 and cortex of the hemisphere injured brain. Finally, the downregulating antiapoptotic Bcl-2 and upregulating proapoptotic Bax proteins were obviously suppressed. Taken together, the current findings suggest that D. zingiberensis total steroid saponins played a potential neuroprotective role against a severe injury induced by transient focal cerebral ischemic reperfusion in a rat experimental model, and this role may be mediated by its anti-inflammatory and antiapoptotic actions.

MicroRNA-7, synergizes with RORα, negatively controls the pathology of brain tissue inflammation

“…However, we found that, compared with WT group, the number of Nissl bodies in neurons of WT BTI model group decreased obviously (Fig. 7g, h, P < 0.05), which was consistent with previous literature [45]. Most importantly, compared with WT BTI model, the number of Nissl bodies in neurons decreased obviously in miR-7 def BTI Fig.…”

The Ethanolic Extract of Caesalpinia sappan Heartwood Inhibits Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Injury in a Rat Model Through a Multi-Targeted Pharmacological Mechanism

“…Thus, CEE may potentially elicit neuroprotection by promoting axonal regeneration. There is increased survival of Nissl bodies after treatment with the neuroprotective agents borneol and ligustrazine and Dioscorea zingiberensis steroid saponins (Zhang et al, 2014; Yu et al, 2016). This finding seems to be closely related to our previous data, which indicated that protosappanin B (Zeng et al, 2015a), one of the major neuroprotective compounds in CEE, significantly increases the expression of the neurosynaptic markers GAP43 and MAP-2 in PC12 cells and primary neurons (Behravan et al, 2014).…”

Safety investigation on total steroid saponins extracts from Dioscorea zingiberensis C.H. Wright: Sub-acute and chronic toxicity studies on dogs

“…Therefore, together with its promising therapeutic effects, toxicological investigation of TCM on experimental animals is indispensable to provide for an appropriate dosage selection for its clinical use. In recent years, D. zingiberensis , an ethno pharmacological and traditional TCM, has demonstrated to exert some newly emerging bioactivities as afore-mentioned in the “ introduction section ” and triggered our interest to explore its chemical composition for pharmacological and clinical applications in depth with extensive efforts [10–12]. The essential TSSN extracts originated from D. zingiberensis have been elaborated as the bioactive compounds that are attributable to the observable effects according to our previous chemical and pharmacological investigations which provided the concentration of some biomarker constituents [17, 21, 22].…”

“…Several phytochemical investigations have revealed the variety of constituents comprising the matrix of extracted samples of D. zingiberensis and total steroid saponins (TSSN) mainly presenting in spirostan and furostan forms makes the largest portion of the constituents. Extracts of TSSN from this plant have demonstrated the signals that TSSN can be the potential bioactive ingredients for the treatment of various diseases, for example cough, anthrax, rheumarthritis, tumefaction, sprain, cerebrovascular as well as cardiac diseases [10–12]. …”