The Antioxidant Effects of Thymoquinone in Activated BV-2 Murine Microglial Cells.

In this study, we investigated the antioxidant effects of TQ on LPS/IFNγ or H2O2-activated BV-2 microglia by assessing the levels of specific oxidative stress markers, the activities of selected antioxidant enzymes, as well as profiling 84 key genes related to oxidative stress via real-time reverse transcription (RT(2)) PCR array. Our results showed that in the LPS/IFNγ-activated microglia TQ significantly decreased the cellular production of both superoxide and nitric oxide fourfold (p < 0.0001) and sixfold (p < 0.0001), respectfully. In the H2O2-activated microglia, TQ also significantly decreased the cellular production of superoxide threefold (p < 0.0001) and significantly decreased hydrogen peroxide levels ~20 % (p < 0.05). Moreover, ΤQ treatment significantly decreased the levels oxidative stress in the activated BV-2 as evidenced by the assessed levels of lipid hydroperoxides and glutathione. TQ significantly decreased the levels of lipid hydroperoxides twofold (p < 0.0001) and significantly increased the levels of antioxidant glutathione 2.5-fold (p < 0.0001) in the LPS/IFNγ-activated BV-2 cells. In the H2O2-activated microglia, TQ significantly decreased lipid hydroperoxides eightfold (p < 0.0001) and significantly increased glutathione 15 % (p < 0.05). Activities of antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), in the TQ-treated microglial cells also reflected a reduced oxidative s...
Source: Neurochemical Research - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Neurochem Res Source Type: research