Methylprednisolone exerts neuroprotective effects by regulating autophagy and apoptosis

摘要

Methylprednisolone markedly reduces autophagy and apoptosis after secondary spinal cord injury. Here, we investigated whether pretreat-ment of cells with methylprednisolone would protect neuron-like cells from subsequent oxidative damagevia suppression of autophagy and apoptosis. Cultured N2a cells were pretreated with 10 µM methylprednisolone for 30 minutes, then exposed to 100 µM H2O2 for 24 hours. Inverted phase contrast microscope images, MTT assay, lfow cytometry and western blot results showed that, compared to cells ex-posed to 100 µM H2O2 alone, cells pretreated with methylprednisolone had a signiifcantly lower percentage of apoptotic cells, maintained a healthy morphology, and showed downregulation of autophagic protein light chain 3B and Beclin-1 protein expression. These ifndings indicate that methylprednisolone exerted neuroprotective effects against oxidative damage by suppressing autophagy and apoptosis.