Reversible effects of vitamins C and E combination on oxidative stress-induced apoptosis in melamine-treated PC12 cells

Abstract

Due to its high nitrogen content, melamine was deliberately added to raw milk for increasing the apparent protein content. Previous studies showed that melamine-induced apoptosis and oxidative damage on PC12 cells and rats' hippocampus. Several evidences suggested that vitamin antioxidant reduced oxidative stress and improved organic function. Whether treatments with antioxidant vitamins C or E, otherwise combination of them can attenuate oxidative stress after melamine administration remains to be elucidated. In this study, the reversible effects of vitamin antioxidants was investigated on melamine-induced neurotoxicity in cultured PC12 cells, an in vitro model of neuronal cells. When comparing vitamin C and E, the combination of both statistically increased PC12 cells viability. The results further showed that vitamin complex has effectively reduced the formation of reaction oxygen species, decreased the level of malondialdehyde, and elevated the activities of antioxidative enzymes. Hoechst 33342 staining and flow cytometric analysis of apoptosis showed that vitamin combination treatment effectively prevented PC12 cells from this melamine-induced apoptosis. It revealed the apoptotic nuclear features of the melamine-induced cell death. Additionally, a combination treatment of vitamins effectively inhibited apoptosis via blocking the increased activation of caspase-3. In summary, the vitamin E and C combination treatment could rescue PC12 cells from the injury induced by melamine through the downregulation of oxidative stress and prevention of melamine-induced apoptosis.

Vitamin C mitigates heat damage by reducing oxidative stress, inducing HSP expression in TM4 Sertoli cells

“…However, supplementation with Vc significantly reduced apoptosis by nearly 4% and 7% at 3 and 12 hr, respectively, compared with the same timepoint in the heat stress group without Vc‐pretreatment. This result confirms our cytopathological examination and the findings of previous studies (An, Li, & Zhang, ; Yin et al, ).…”

Indoxyl Sulfate‐Induced Oxidative Stress, Mitochondrial Dysfunction, and Impaired Biogenesis Are Partly Protected by Vitamin C and N‐Acetylcysteine

“…Vitamin C [ 25 ] and NAC [ 26 ] are both well-known scavengers of free radicals. Interestingly, oxidative stress associated with other ROS-generating drugs such as imidacloprid [ 27 ] and melamine [ 28 ] was shown to be thwarted by treatment with vitamin C. In addition, liver carcinogenesis induced by diethylnitrosamine was mediated by ROS generation and was reversed by NAC in animal models [ 29 ]. Furthermore, pretreatment with NAC partly rescued IS-induced antiproliferative effects and nitric oxide generation in HUVECs at 48 h IS treatment [ 5 ].…”

Autophagy Alleviates Melamine-Induced Cell Death in PC12 Cells Via Decreasing ROS Level

“…Particularly, one of our previous studies reported that melamine induced apoptosis in PC12 cells; meanwhile, oxidative stress was profoundly involved in the process of apoptosis [12]. By means of reducing ROS level, however, vitamin C and vitamin E combination therapy could effectively alleviate apoptosis induced by melamine [13].…”