Abstract
Cognitive dysfunction caused by sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is still poorly understood. It is reported that vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) exerts its anti-inflammatory effects in multiple diseases, while its biological function in SAE remains unclear. We aimed to figure out whether VIP has influence on sepsis-induced neuroinflammation and cognitive dysfunction. To induce sepsis, rats were subjected to cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) operation. Morris water maze test and fear conditioning test were conducted to reveal cognitive dysfunctions. TUNEL assay was performed to evaluate apoptosis. We found out that the expression of VIP was downregulated in the hippocampus of septic rats. VIP was verified to attenuate sepsis-induced memory impairment following CLP. Additionally, we examined apoptosis and inflammation in rats’ hippocampus. It is worth noting that VIP inhibited the apoptosis in the hippocampus and reduced the productions of proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-1β. Furthermore, our data confirmed that VIP was involved in regulating the TLR-4/NF-κB signaling. In conclusion, VIP inhibited neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment in hippocampus of septic rats through the TLR-4/NF-κB signaling pathway.
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The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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The study was supported by the Bureau of Science & Technology and Intellectual Property Nanchong City (No. 19SXHZ0091), and the Scientific research project of Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College (No. ZX-2021–056).
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Yang, Y., Yun, D., Dong, B. et al. VIP alleviates sepsis-induced cognitive dysfunction as the TLR-4/NF-κB signaling pathway is inhibited in the hippocampus of rats. J Mol Histol 53, 369–377 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-022-10068-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10735-022-10068-8