Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Effects of icariin and quercetin on high glucose-induced neuronal cell apoptosis

Mengqian Dong, Ying Jin, Peifen Huang, Zhiyang Chen

Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, The First People's Hospital of WenLing, Taizhou, PR China;

For correspondence:- Zhiyang Chen Email: djnrs2@163.com

Accepted: 27 May 2020 Published: 30 June 2020

Citation: Dong M, Jin Y, Huang P, Chen Z. Effects of icariin and quercetin on high glucose-induced neuronal cell apoptosis. Trop J Pharm Res 2020; 19(6):1185-1190 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v19i6.10

© 2020 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To study the effects of icariin and quercetin on cell apoptotic changes in neurons induced by elevated glucose condition, and the mechanism involved.

Methods: Neonatal male Sprague Dawley rats (n = 48) weighing 5 – 7 g were used. Neuronal cells were isolated from rat hippocampus and cultured after purification. The cells were randomly assigned to six groups: control, high glucose, icariin, quercetin, serine/threonine-specific protein kinase (Akt) inhibitor, and Akt agonist groups. The Akt inhibitor and agonist used in this study were MK-22062hci and SC79, respectively. The influence of icariin and quercetin on neuronal apoptotic changes were determined flow cytometrically, while their effects on levels of expression of Akt, p-Akt, bax and bcl-2 were determined with Western blotting.

Results: Treatment with icariin or quercetin significantly inhibited apoptosis induced by high glucose. The concentrations of Akt, p-Akt, and bcl-2 proteins were markedly upregulated in high glucose group, relative to control (p < 0.05). The corresponding expression of bax was significantly down-regulated in high glucose group, relative to control (p < 0.05). Treatment with icariin or quercetin, or their agonists reversed high glucose-mediated alterations in these protein levels (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Icariin and quercetin inhibit neuronal cell apoptosis induced by high glucose through upregulation of bcl-2 expression and down-regulations of bax expression and Akt-induced protein phosphorylation. Thus, Icariin and quercetin possess potential benefits for the treatment of neurological diseases.

Keywords: Apoptosis, High glucose condition, Hippocampal neurons, Icariin, Quercetin