Abstract
Berberine Prevents Cognitive Disorders Induced by Sepsis by Regulating the Inflammatory Cytokines, Oxidative Stress and Neuronal Apoptosis in Rat Brain
Author(s): Mengrao Shi, Chunxiu Zhao, Xuhua Ge, Huiyun Yang, Lingqing Ge, Guoji Zhu, Wenwen XuSepsis is a life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection and can cause a huge burden to whole families and to society in terms of medical costs. Cognitive disorders induced by sepsis are still exasperating problems in clinical research. This paper examines a new measure of berberine (BBR) in sepsis induced cognitive disorders based on CLP surgery. BBR is one of many extracts from Chinese traditional herbs and exhibits antidiabetic, anticancer and antioxidant activities in treating various clinical disorders. Whether BBR shows efficacy in improving survival rates and inhibiting the extent of cognitive disorders after sepsis was explored in this paper.The result revealed that BBR treatment significantly improved the survival rate and cognitive disorders in septic rats. Increased levels of antioxidant superoxide dismutase (SOD) and reduced levels of lipid peroxidation malondialdehyde (MDA) were exhibited in the serum and brain tissue of the BBR treatment group. Moreover, the inflammatory cytokine (IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, TNF-α) levels in the brain tissue were all decreased in the BBR treatment group compared to those in the sepsis group. BBR also largely protected the cells from apoptosis in the cerebral cortex and hippocampal CA1 region. Overall, our results indicated that BBR exhibited protective effects on survival rate and cognitive disorders after sepsis by inhibiting the release of inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress and neuronal apoptosis in brain tissue. Therefore, BBR is a potential drug that shows efficacy in avoiding death rates and cognitive disorder after sepsis.