Peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) regulates neuroinflammation, and its agonists act as neuroprotective agents. This study aims to investigate the correlation between PPARγ and proinflammatory enzyme expression in astroglia infected with Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoite in vitro. Our results showed that matrix metalloprotease (MMP)-2, MMP-9, cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), prostaglandin (PGE)-2, inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS), and nitric oxide (NO) were significantly increased in T. gondii–infected astroglia. Furthermore, the expression levels of MMP-2, MMP-9, COX-2, PGE-2, iNOS, and NO were significantly decreased by rosiglitazone—a PPARγ agonist. By contrast, the treatment with GW9662, a PPARγ antagonist, efficiently increased the expression levels of MMP-2, MMP-9, COX-2, PGE-2, iNOS, and NO. These results suggested that the treatment with rosiglitazone offers a potential strategy for controlling the inflammatory factors in T. gondii infection.

过氧化物酶体增殖物激活受体γ（PPARγ）调节神经炎症，其激动剂起神经保护剂的作用。本研究旨在探讨弓形虫速殖子感染的星形胶质细胞中PPARγ与促炎酶表达之间的相关性。我们的结果表明，基质金属蛋白酶（MMP）-2，MMP-9，环加氧酶-2（COX-2），前列腺素（PGE）-2，诱导型一氧化氮合酶（iNOS）和一氧化氮（NO）显着增加在T. gondii中–感染的星状。此外，罗格列酮（一种PPARγ激动剂）显着降低了MMP-2，MMP-9，COX-2，PGE-2，iNOS和NO的表达水平。相比之下，用PPARγ拮抗剂GW9662进行的治疗有效地提高了MMP-2，MMP-9，COX-2，PGE-2，iNOS和NO的表达水平。这些结果表明，用罗格列酮治疗提供了控制刚地弓形虫感染中炎性因子的潜在策略。