Neuroprotective effect of quercetin in murine cortical brain tissue cultures

Summary: Purpose: Quercetin (QR) is bioflavonoids known for its antioxidants property and its ability to alleviate oxidative stress and promote cellular survival. The aim of this study was to explore the neuroprotective potential of QR against the induced oxidative stress. Methods: Cortical brain tissue cultures from one week old Wister rats were set up in four groups. Group 1: the control group without any treatments; Group 2: cortical cultures treated with 1 mM H2O2 for one hour; Group 3: Cortical cultures pretreated with varying doses of QR for 24 h followed by treatment with 1 mM H2O2 for 1 h; Group 4: Cortical cultures treated with the vehicle alone (DMSO). The cortical Tissues from all four groups were homogenized, both the homogenized cortical tissues and conditioned medium was used for the biochemical assay. For histology studies cortical brain tissue were fixed in 10% formalin and stained with H&E. Results: Pretreatment with 100 μg/ml showed the optimum concentration, which completely ameliorates the effect of induced oxidative stress by H2O2. All of the biochemical markers of oxidative stress such as lipid peroxidation, GST enzyme assay, DNA damage and fragmentation were completely reversed with the pretreatments of QR. Histology of the cortical tissues further confirmed the biochemical assays as it showed the pretreatments with QR resulted in the neuronal survival and viability. Conclusions: This study further reiterated the neuroprotective role of QR against oxidative stress-related neurodegenerative disorders. Keywords: Oxidative stress (OS), Quercetin (QR), Neuroprotection, Cortical brain cultures, Lipid peroxidation, DNA damag