Protective effect of an alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone analogue against palmitic acid toxicity

J. SABA; D. DURAND; D. RAMIREZ; L. CARNIGLIA; M. LASAGA; J. TURATI; C. CARUSO

CABA

Congreso; 2nd FALAN Congress; 2016

Sociedad Argentina de Investigacion en Neurociencias

Alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (aMSH) is an endogenous neuropeptide with a wide range of physiological functions and neuroprotective effects. Our group has previously shown that aMSH exerts anti-inflammatory actions through MC4 receptors in astrocytes and microglia. Dietary excess of palmitic acid (PA), a saturated fatty acid, is known to induce oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain. In this work, we investigated the effect of NDP-MSH, an aMSH analogue, on reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in astrocytes and microglia subjected to PA 0.1 mM treatment for 2 h, observing in both cases that NDP-MSH reduced PA-induced ROS production. Treatment of astrocytes with PA 0.1 mM for 24 h reduced SOD activity and NDP-MSH reversed this effect. Given that neurons are more susceptible than astrocytes to oxidative damage, we evaluated the effect of PA on viability and ROS production in PC12 cells. Incubation for 24 h with PA reduced PC12 cells viability and induced ROS production. NDP-MSH treatment inhibited ROS production. In addition, conditioned medium from control (CMC) and from NDP-MSH-treated (CMN) astrocytes reduced ROS production and partially blocked the decrease in cell viability induced by PA. In summary, these results suggest that NDP-MSH protects astrocytes and PC12 cells from PA-induced oxidative damage and that astrocytes have a protective effect on PC12 cells