Apoptosis and necroptosis occur in the different brain regions of hippocampus in a rat model of hypoxia asphyxia

Abstract

Aim of the study

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) is a major cause of newborn brain injury. Apoptosis and necroptosis are two forms of cell death which may occur in HIE but reported data are yet limited. This study investigates the expression of receptor interacting protein kinase (RIPK) 1 and 3, and caspase3, the key modulators of necroptosis and apoptosis, respectively, in a model of HIE to determine whether both forms of cell death occur in the corresponding brain regions.

Materials and methods

Postneonatal day 7 Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to right carotid artery ligation followed by hypoxia or subjected to skin incision under surgical anesthesia without ligation and hypoxia. Neuroglioma (H4) cell was cultured and subjected to 24 h hypoxic insults. Necrostatin-1, a RIPK1 inhibitor, was administered in both in vivo and in vitro settings before insult.

Results

After hypoxic-ischemic insults, both RIPK1 and RIPK3 expression were significantly increased in the region of hippocampal dentate gyrus in the injurious hemisphere. However, cleaved caspase3 was significantly increased in the hippocampal cornu ammonis 1 region in the injurious hemisphere. After hypoxic insults, RIPK1 and RIPK3 expression was also found in H4 cells. In addition, it was identified that the increased RIPK1 and RIPK3 can be inhibited by necrostatin-1 in both in vivo and in vitro.

Conclusions

These data indicated that apoptosis and necroptosis occur in different brain regions of hippocampus in a model of HIE which may suggest that strategies to prevent each form of neuronal death is valuable to be developed.

Keywords:

• hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
• cell death
• receptor-interacting protein kinases
• necrostatin-1

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a grant (10IMP01) from SPARKS, London, UK. This work was also supported by the funding for PhD students from China Scholarship Council (201700260043, 2017-2020).