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

DELIA RAMÍREZ; JULIETA SABA; TURATI, JUAN; LILA CARNIGLIA; DANIELA DURAND; CARLA CARUSO; LASAGA, MERCEDES

Buenos Aires

Congreso; Falan Congress; 2016

Federation of latin american and caribbean neuroscience

Palmitic acid (PA) is a saturated fatty acid which dietary excess is known to induce oxidative stress and inflammation in the brain. Alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) is an endogenous neuropeptide with a wide range of physiological functions and neuroprotective effects. Our group has previously shown that alpha-MSH exerts an anti-inflammatory action through MC4 receptors in astrocytes. In this work, we investigated the effect of NDP-MSH, an alpha-MSH 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 ROS production. Besides, NDP-MSH reversed superoxide dismutase activity reduction in astrocytes incubated with PA 0.1 mM for 24 h. Given that neurons are more susceptible than astrocytes to oxidative damage, we evaluated the effect of PA on viability and ROS production in PC12 neurons. First, viability was determined after 24 h of incubation with different doses of PA (0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 mM). PA reduced PC12 neurons viability in a dose dependent manner. Next, we treated PC12 neurons with PA 0.2 mM to induce ROS production (2 h) and cell death (24 h). Conditioned medium from NDP-MSH-treated astrocytes reduced ROS production and partially blocked the decrease in cell viability induced by PA. In summary, these results suggest that NDP-MSH protect astrocytes from oxidative damage and that NDP-MSH-treated astrocytes have a protective effect on PC12 neurons.