Methylene Blue Mitigates Acute Neuroinflammation after Spinal Cord Injury through Inhibiting NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation in Microglia.

ABSTRACT: The spinal cord injury (SCI) is a detrimental neurological disease involving the primary mechanical injury and secondary inflammatory damage. Curtailing the detrimental neuroinflammation would be beneficial for spinal cord function recovery. Microglia reside in the spinal cord and actively participate in the onset, progression and perhaps resolution of post-SCI neuroinflammation. In the current study, we tested the effects of methylene blue on microglia both in vitro and in a rat SCI model. We found that methylene blue inhibited the protein levels of IL-1β and IL-18 rather than their mRNA levels in activated microglia. Further investigation indicated that methylene blue deceased the activation of NLRP3 inflammasome and NLRC4 inflammasome in microglia in vitro. Moreover, in th

SUBMITTER: Lin ZH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5732444 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature