Abstract
Recent findings linked the inhibition in the neuromodulator peptide endothelin-1 (ET-1) level to the high glucose-evoked neurotoxicity. However, definitive neuroprotective role for ET-1 and the major neuronal ET (ET-3) against high glucose-evoked toxicity and the implicated neurochemical responses triggered by their ET-A and ET-B receptors remain unknown. Here, we tested the hypothesis that ET-B activation alleviates high glucose-evoked oxidative stress and cell death. High glucose (100 mM for 48 hours)-evoked cell death was associated with elevation in reactive oxygen species, inhibition of catalase activity, and a paradoxical upregulation of hemeoxygenase-1 expression along with ET-A and ET-B receptors were downregulated and upregulated, respectively. ET-1 or ET-3, in concentrations that had no effect on PC12 cell viability in normal glucose medium, alleviated all high glucose-evoked neurochemical responses, except for the reduction in ET-A receptor expression. Prior (4 hours) incubation with a selective ET-A (BQ123) or ET-B (BQ788) receptor blocker abrogated the neuroprotection conferred by ET-1 or ET-3. However, the ET-B receptor played a greater role because BQ788 abrogated the favorable ET-1- or ET-3-mediated reversal of the ERK1/2 phosphorylation and the inhibition in catalase activity caused by high glucose. These findings suggest that endothelin exerts ET-B receptor-dependent favorable redox and neuroprotective effects against high glucose-evoked oxidative damage and neurotoxicity.
Footnotes
- Received October 28, 2016.
- Accepted February 6, 2017.
This work was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [Grant R01 AA014441-10, AAA].
Dr. Mohamed Fouda is a visiting scholar from the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Alexandria University, Egypt.
- Copyright © 2017 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
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