HspB8 mediates neuroprotection against OGD/R in N2A cells through the phosphoinositide 3-kinase/Akt pathway.

In a previous study, we found that Heat shock protein B8 (HspB8) overexpression could prevent the apoptosis and reduced cell viability induced by OGD/R and showed that the neuroprotective effect of HspB8 was mediated by inhibition of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. In recent study, HspB8 has been shown to protect the heart against ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury via activation of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt pathway. However, whether this protective effect applied to brain I/R injury remained unexplored. To further test the mechanism of HspB8's effects in brain, we used oxygen-glucose deprivation followed by reperfusion (OGD/R), an in vitro model of ischemia to examine the involvement of PI3K/Akt signaling by treating mouse neuroblastoma cells (N2A cells) (untransfected or transfected with an HspB8 expression vector) with the PI3K inhibitor LY294002 before OGD/R. Our results revealed that the apoptosis-suppressing effect of HspB8 was mediated by the PI3K/Akt pathway. Therefore, HspB8 protected the N2A cells against OGD/R insult, possibly by activating the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.