IMR Press / JIN / Volume 19 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.31083/j.jin.2020.01.1213
Open Access Original Research
The Chinese herb Fructus Broussonetiae aids learning and memory in chronic cerebral hypoperfusion by reducing proinflammatory microglia activation in rats
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1 Institute of Cerebrovascular Diseases Research and Department of Neurology, Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, Beijing, 10053, P. R. China
2 Dongfang Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing, 10078, P. R. China
3 Beijing Geriatric Medical Research Center and Beijing Key Laboratory of Translational Medicine for Cerebrovascular Diseases, Beijing, 10053, P. R. China
4 Beijing Institute for Brain Disorders, Beijing, 10053, P. R. China
*Correspondence: yumin111@ccmu.edu.cn (Yumin Luo); chenzhigang64@126.com (Zhigang Chen)
J. Integr. Neurosci. 2020, 19(1), 21–29; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.jin.2020.01.1213
Submitted: 15 October 2019 | Accepted: 25 February 2020 | Published: 30 March 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploration of mechanisms in cortical plasticity)
Copyright: © 2020 Liu et al. Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).
Abstract

The neuroprotective role of Fructus Broussonetiae in a model of chronic cerebral hypoperfusion with cognitive decline was focused on neural plasticity and microglia/macrophage polarization. Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion was induced by bilateral common carotid artery ligation. Fructus Broussonetiae shortened escape latency and added the number of platform crossings of rats, up-regulated the expression of synaptophysin in the gray matter and increased myelin basic protein expression in the white matter. Further mechanistic experiments were conducted to examine microglia activation and M1/M2 polarization. It was shown that Fructus Broussonetiae reduced the activation of microglia revealed by decreased expression of ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1, inhibited M1 polarization of microglia and improved microglial M2 polarization shown by down-regulated the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and Fc fragment of IgG receptor IIIa and up-regulated the expression of arginase-1. In conclusion, the Chinese herb Fructus Broussonetiae can improve cognitive function following chronic cerebral hypoperfusion by down-regulating the activation of microglia, inhibiting microglial M1 polarization, and improving neural plasticity.

Keywords
Fructus Broussonetiae
chronic cerebral hypoperfusion
macrophages/microglia polarization
inducible nitric oxide synthase
arginase-1
neuroprotective effect
rats
Figures
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