Frontiers in Pharmacology (Mar 2024)

Baicalin administration could rescue high glucose-induced craniofacial skeleton malformation by regulating neural crest development

  • Jia-Qi Lu,
  • Jia-Qi Lu,
  • Zhi-Yan Luo,
  • Zhi-Yan Luo,
  • Chengyang Sun,
  • Si-Miao Wang,
  • Dixiang Sun,
  • Ruo-Jing Huang,
  • Xuesong Yang,
  • Xuesong Yang,
  • Yong Ding,
  • Guang Wang,
  • Guang Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2024.1295356
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15

Abstract

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Hyperglycemia in pregnancy can increase the risk of congenital disorders, but little is known about craniofacial skeleton malformation and its corresponding medication. Our study first used meta-analysis to review the previous findings. Second, baicalin, an antioxidant, was chosen to counteract high glucose-induced craniofacial skeleton malformation. Its effectiveness was then tested by exposing chicken embryos to a combination of high glucose (HG, 50 mM) and 6 μM baicalin. Third, whole-mount immunofluorescence staining and in situ hybridization revealed that baicalin administration could reverse HG-inhibited neural crest cells (NCC) delamination and migration through upregulating the expression of Pax7 and Foxd3, and mitigate the disordered epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process by regulating corresponding adhesion molecules and transcription factors (i.e., E-cadherin, N-cadherin, Cadherin 6B, Slug and Msx1). Finally, through bioinformatic analysis and cellular thermal shift assay, we identified the AKR1B1 gene as a potential target. In summary, these findings suggest that baicalin could be used as a therapeutic agent for high glucose-induced craniofacial skeleton malformation.

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