Rosiglitazone ameliorates diffuse axonal injury by reducing loss of tau and up-regulating caveolin-1 expression

Abstract

Rosiglitazone up-regulates caveolin-1 levels and has neuroprotective effects in both chronic and acute brain injury. Therefore, we postulated that rosiglitazone may ameliorate diffuse axonal injury via its ability to up-regulate caveolin-1, inhibit expression of amyloid-beta precursor protein, and reduce the loss and abnormal phosphorylation of tau. In the present study, intraperitoneal injection of rosiglitazone significantly reduced the levels of amyloid-beta precursor protein and hyperphosphorylated tau (phosphorylated at Ser 404 (p-tau (S 404 )), and it increased the expression of total tau and caveolin-1 in the rat cortex. Our results show that rosiglitazone inhibits the expression of amyloid-beta precursor protein and lowers p-tau (S 404 ) levels, and it reduces the loss of total tau, possibly by up-regulating caveolin-1. These actions of rosiglitazone may underlie its neuroprotective effects in the treatment of diffuse axonal injury.

Keywords

• nerve regeneration; diffuse axonal injury; rosiglitazone; hyperphosphorylated tau; total tau; caveolin-1; rats; amyloid precursor protein; ser404; cortex; immunocytochemistry; western blot assay; neural regeneration