GLP-1 Analog Alleviated Cognitive Dysfunction in Aged Rats Anaesthetized with Sevoflurane.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) in elderly patients undergoing general anesthesia is a major problem in the aging society. Sevoflurane is the most widely applied anesthetic in clinical practice. In this study, we investigated the effects of the GLP-1 analogue liraglutide on cognitive function in aged rats anesthetized by sevoflurane. Specifically, 48 Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into the control (C) group, the liraglutide (L) group, the sevoflurane (S) group, and the sevoflurane+liraglutide (SL) group, each group with 12 rats. In the S group and the SL group, the rats were injected subcutaneously with normal saline and liraglutide after inhalation of a mixture of 3% sevoflurane and pure oxygen. In the C group and the L group, normal saline and liraglutide were injected subcutaneously into the rats after inhalation of pure oxygen. Morris Water Maze Task was applied for the detection of spatial learning and memory in rats; HE and TUNEL for staining; and western blot for quantifying Bax, Bcl-2 expression, and examining caspase-3 activity in hippocampal tissues as well as for revealing the antiapoptotic mechanism. Besides, the accumulation of inflammatory factors NF-κB and IL-1β in the hippocampal tissue was quantitatively studied to reveal the anti-inflammatory mechanism. The protective effect of liraglutide on sevoflurane toxicity was the first to be confirmed in this study. Additionally, this study elucidated the mechanism of the above effect. The results of this study might be helpful to find an effective medical solution for the treatment of POCD caused by sevoflurane anesthesia.

1. Introduction

With the aging of the social population and the rapid development of medical technology, elderly patients undergoing surgical treatment are increasing year by year. According to statistics, the proportion of the population over 65 years of age in China will exceed 20% in 2040 [1], and thereinto, 1/2 will undergo one surgery at least. Therefore, concerns of patients have been raised not only about the efficacy and safety of surgery but also about the quality of life after surgery. Since Bedford first reported the observation of postoperative dementia in elderly patients under general anesthesia in 1955, he suggested that there should be specific indications for the application of general anesthesia in the elderly [2]. Besides, the potential risk of general anesthetic drugs on cognitive function in the elderly has been the focus of researchers' attention [3, 4]. It has been shown that general anesthesia causes extensive and long-lasting physiological changes in patients. For instance, general anesthesia affects the expression of certain genes and neuronal apoptosis in the central nervous system [5-7], resulting in the occurrence of postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD). Culley et al. [8] showed that long-lasting general anesthesia could cause POCD in experimental animals and also occasionally in human patients clinically. POCD belongs to mild neurocognitive dysfunction, and the clinical manifestations mainly include cognitive abnormalities, memory loss, personality changes, mild neurological symptoms, and neuropsychological symptoms [9]. The significantly increased incidence of POCD in the elderly patients may be related to the relatively low storage capacity due to neurodegeneration [10]. Most symptoms of POCD are reversible, but the reversibility increases the risk of postoperative pulmonary infection and accelerates the deterioration of Alzheimer disease.

The connection of POCD with anesthesia and surgical methodology has been demonstrated by studies. And both the anesthesia drugs and the usage way may impair patients' cognitive performance. Sevoflurane is a newly halogenated inhalation anesthetic with the advantages of rapid onset of action, fast recovery, less irritation to the respiratory tract, low dissolubility, and difficult degradation in the body, which has become the most widely applied anesthetic in clinical practice. However, sevoflurane has potential toxicity to the nervous system [11, 12]. A great number of studies in recent years have found that inhalation of sevoflurane can result in POCD, which is characterized by the loss of learning and memory abilities, especially in elderly patients [13, 14]. POCD is one of the great challenges for the medical community. Specifically, POCD can bring serious adverse effects for the postoperative recovery of patients. For example, POCD raises the incidence of complications and death, delays the time of hospital discharge, and increases hospitalization costs in patients. Therefore, it is significant to find an effective drug to prevent or alleviate POCD. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is a physiological peptide hormone of gut secreted by neuroendocrine l cells in the terminal ileum, large intestine, and rectum. GLP-1, as an antidiabetic drug with multiple mechanisms and pleiotropic effects, is widely applied for the treatment of diabetes in clinical practice. In addition, GLP-1 and its analogues also have physiological functions to protect the central nervous system. Specifically, GLP-1 and its analogues can inhibit central inflammation, promote neurogenesis, and resist apoptosis, thereby reducing clinical symptoms and slowing down the progression of degenerative diseases [15-17]. Therefore, we wondered whether GLP-1 and its analogues could treat POCD caused by anesthesia.

In this study, we innovatively adopted liraglutide to verify the effects of the GLP-1 analogue on promoting cognitive recovery in aged rats injured by sevoflurane anesthesia. Specifically, Morris Water Maze Task was performed to observe the effects of sevoflurane-caused POCD and liraglutide on the cognitive function. Then, HE and TUNEL staining methods were conducted to detect apoptosis in hippocampal neurons, Bax and Bcl-1 expression changes, and caspase-3 activity changes. After that, the mechanism of protective effects of liraglutide in aged rats after anesthesia was further explored, and the effect of the mechanism on central nervous system inflammatory factor level was discussed. Finally, we preliminarily revealed the protective mechanism of liraglutide on a sevoflurane-anesthetized aged brain. The mechanism was that liraglutide played a promoting role in cognitive function recovery through antiapoptosis and anticentral inflammation. This study was the first report that tried to expound the above mechanism from a two-dimensional angle.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Animals

This study was approved by Animals Ethics Committee of Nanchang University and performed in accordance with its regulations. Twenty-month-old male Sprague-Dawley rats (600-700 g) were used, which were obtained from Laboratory Animal Center of Nanchang University and fed under standard conditions (22-25°C, 55% ± 5% relative humidity, 12 h/12 h dark/light cycle) with free access to food and water. They were acclimated to laboratory conditions for 1 week prior to experiments.

Forty-eight rats were randomly assigned into four groups of 12 each: control (C) group, liraglutide (L) group, sevoflurane (S) group, and sevoflurane plus liraglutide (SL) group. They were fasted for 8 hours prior to experiments with free access to water till 4 hours before experiments. Rats in the S and SL groups were exposed to 3% sevoflurane (about 1.3 MAC) mixed with pure O2 for 6 h [18]. The depth of anesthesia was monitored by observing the amplitude and frequency of respiratory, the color of the tip of the nose and toe, and other vital signs. Their temperatures were maintained at 38 ± 1°C using an incandescent lamp. After anesthesia, they received 100% oxygen until consciousness recovery. Rats in the C and L groups inhaled pure oxygen for an identical time period. After recovery, rats in the L and SL groups were subcutaneously injected with liraglutide at a dose of 2 μmol/kg/d for 4 weeks, while those in the C and S groups were injected saline instead.

2.2. Morris Water Maze Task

Twenty-four hours after sevoflurane exposure, rats were assigned MWM test to evaluate spatial memory abilities. A round, black painted pool (diameter, 180 cm; depth, 50 cm) was filled with black ink stained water to a depth of 30 cm. Water temperature was maintained at 25 ± 1°C. The pool was divided into four quadrants with a 2 cm-submerged platform (diameter, 10 cm) in the target quadrant (fourth quadrant). Trials began by releasing the rat into water facing the outer edge of the pool at one random quadrant and letting it escape to the platform. Once reaching the platform, the rat was allowed to stay on it for 30 s. The rat was allowed to swim for 60 s at maximum in a trial; the time it spent reaching the platform (escape latency) and the path length were recorded. If the rat failed to reach the platform within 60 s, it was manually guided to the platform and escape latency was recorded as 60 s. All rats received four trials daily for 5 consecutive days with 10-15 min intertrial intervals. On day six, the platform was removed and each rat was allowed to swim for 60 s. The number of times the rat crossed over the previous platform site, the swimming distance, and time in the target quadrant were recorded [14]. The swimming path was tracked by a computerized video system (Electric factory of Anhui, China).

2.3. Tissue Preparation

All rats were sacrificed by spinal dislocation after the MWM test. The hippocampus was isolated from brains on ice. The left half of hippocampus placed in cryopreservation tube was frozen immediately in liquid nitrogen and then stored at -80°C for total protein extraction. Meanwhile, the right hippocampus was fixed in 10% formaldehyde, embedded in paraffin, and coronally sectioned (4 μm) for HE staining and TUNEL assay.

2.4. Preparation of Total Protein Extracts

The hippocampus was homogenized on ice in RIPA lysis buffer (RIPA : PMSF = 100 : 1) for 15 min and centrifuged at 12,000 × g for 15 min at 4°C. The supernatant was collected and stored at -80°C. Total protein concentrations were determined by the BCA Protein Assay kit (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China).

2.5. Western Blot

100 μg of protein per line was separated by 10% SDS-PAGE and then transferred to PVDF membranes (Millipore Co., Billerica, MA, USA). After being blocked with 5% skim milk for 2 h, membranes were incubated with primary antibodies overnight at 4°C.

The primary antibodies were as follows: anti-β-actin (1 : 1000; CST, Danvers, MA), anti-Bax (1 : 1000; CST), and anti-Bcl-2 (1 : 1000; CST). Membranes were then washed with 1 × TBS/0.1% Tween 20; incubated with HRP-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG (secondary antibody, 1 : 3000; CST) at room temperature for 2 h; and washed with 1 × TBS/0.1% Tween 20 for three times [19]. Blots were visualized with an ECL detection kit (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China) and analyzed using ImageJ software (National Institutes of Health, NIH).

2.6. Measurement of Caspase-3 Activity

The reaction mixture contains 2 mM Ac-DEVD-pNA (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China) and was incubated at 37°C for 6 h. Caspase-3 activation was measured on a microplate reader (EMR500; Labomed, Inc., Los Angeles, CA, USA) at 405 nm [20].

2.7. ELISA

Concentrations of NF-κB and IL-1β in the supernatant were individually measured using ELISA kits from SenBeiJia (SenBeiJia Biological Technology, Nanjing, China) and Kaiji (KeyGen Biotech, Nanjing, China), according to the manufacturer's instructions.

2.8. H&E Staining

4 μm thick tissue sections were dewaxed in xylene, rehydrated through decreasing concentration of ethanol, washed with PBS, and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (HE). After staining, sections were dehydrated through increasing concentrations of ethanol and xylene. Neuronal damage in the hippocampus was analyzed at 400x magnification [21].

2.9. TUNEL Assay

The procedure was performed using a situ cell death detection kit according to the manufacturer's instruction (Beyotime Biotechnology, Shanghai, China). Section samples were conventionally de-waxed, treated with 20 μg/ml proteinase K for 15 min, treated with 0.3% H2O2 for 20 min, rinsed, and incubated with TUNEL reaction mixture for 60 min at 37°C. Further incubation of samples with Streptavidin-HRP working buffer was performed for 30 min at room temperature. The nuclei of apoptotic cells were stained brown by DAB, representing TUNEL-positive cells. The number of TUNEL-positive cells and the number of all cells in hippocampus were counted at 400x magnification [22].

2.10. Statistical Analysis

IBM SPSS 26.0 software (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was utilized for data analysis. Numerical variables were expressed as the mean ± standard deviation (mean ± SD). P < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.

3. Results

3.1. Liraglutide Alleviated POCD Symptoms in Aged Rats Caused by Sevoflurane Anesthesia

To investigate the effect of Liraglutide on aged brains suffering from POCD caused by sevoflurane anesthesia, we performed experiments on aged rats. As demonstrated in Figures 1(a)–1(c), both the rats from the C group and from the L group were able to reach the platform. The C group exhibited clearly patterned swimming path indicative of unaffected recognition ability. The L group exhibited a more jumbled circulating swimming path especially at the beginning two days during which the time of latency was doubled as compared with C group, but there was no significant difference in total distance between the L group and C group. The S group failed to get to the platform and exhibited disordered swimming path. And the total exercise distance and latency of the S group were the longest; it seemed the S group was completely disabled, which was a definite demonstration of POCD. Unlike those in the S group, rats in the SL group were able to reach the platform and exhibited partial recovery of cognitive function along with time. However, their time of latency was elongated by about 2.6-fold. In addition, there was no significant difference in swimming distance, number of swimming, and crossing the platform between the L group and the C group, but there was no effective physical activity in the S group. The swimming distance, the times of swimming, and the times of crossing the platform in the SL group were significantly better than those in the S group (Figures 1(d)–1(f)). These results demonstrated that sevoflurane at a volumetric concentration of 3% could cause POCD in aged rats and liraglutide at a daily dosage of 25 nmol/kg could alleviate such POCD symptoms caused by sevoflurane anesthesia.

Figure 1

Results of Morris Water Maze Task: (a) the swimming path; (b) the total distance; (c) the time of latency; (d) the shuttle times in the target quadrant; (e) the swimming distance in the target quadrant; (f) the swimming time in the target quadrant. ∗P < 0.05 and∗∗P < 0.01 vs. the C group; #P < 0.05 and#P < 0.05 vs. the S group; &&P < 0.01 vs. the L group.

3.2. Liraglutide Prohibited Neuron Apoptosis in the Hippocampus Area of Aged Rats Caused by Sevoflurane Anesthesia

To reveal the possible mechanism of how liraglutide alleviates POCD in aged rats after sevoflurane anesthesia, we investigated neuron apoptosis in hippocampus. As shown in Figure 2(a), the hippocampal neurons in the C group were neatly arranged, the cell structure was complete, and the nucleus was large and regular; the neurons in the L group were arranged neatly, but the number of neurons in the L group was less than that in the C group; in the S group, there were nuclear pyknosis and nuclear chromatin condensation, indicating that the neurons were damaged and the apoptosis increased; the cells in the SL group were neatly arranged, and the cell structure was more complete than that in the S group. Subsequently, TUNEL staining was performed with the hippocampus. Comparable neuron apoptosis was observed in the hippocampus from the C group and the L group. The morphology of the cell was not changed, and the number of apoptotic cells was even reduced by liraglutide treatment, while the significantly increased number of apoptotic cells was observed in the S group as compared to the C group, with the morphological change of scattering and decomposing, which demonstrated a severely deteriorated apoptotic process. However, the number of apoptotic cells of rats from the SL group was significantly lower than that from the S group (Figure 2(b)), demonstrating a rescue from sevoflurane toxicity by liraglutide.

Figure 2

Observation of cell apoptosis in hippocampus. (a) HE staining; (b) TUNEL staining; (c) western blotting of Bcl-2 and Bax; (d) enzymatic test of caspase-3. ∗∗P < 0.01 vs. the C group; #P < 0.05 vs. the S group; &&P < 0.01 vs. the L group.

Secondly, we quantified the expression of Bax and Bcl-2 in the hippocampus by western blotting. As shown in Figure 2(c), the expression of Bax and Bcl-2 had no significant difference between the C group and the L group. Compared with the C group, the expression of the apoptotic Bax was increased; meanwhile, the expression of the antiapoptotic Bcl-2 was reduced in the S group. However, the expression of Bcl-2 in the SL group was significantly increased compared with that in the S group, and the expression of Bax was decreased (Figure 2(c)). In addition, the caspase-3 activity in the S group was significantly increased compared to the those in the C and L groups, which also suggested that the hippocampus of the S group was apoptosis, while the caspase-3 activity in the SL group was significantly lower than that in the S group (Figure 2(d)).The results show that liraglutide could have an antiapoptosis effect on aged rats subjected to sevoflurane anesthesia.

3.3. Liraglutide Reduced the Level of Inflammatory Factors in Hippocampus of Aged Rats Stimulated by Sevoflurane Anesthesia

Since GLP-1 analogs were previously confirmed with an inhibitory effect on neural inflammation, we investigated the effect of liraglutide on neural inflammation in aged brains subjected to sevoflurane anesthesia to further reveal the mechanism of its protective effect on sevoflurane anesthesia related POCD. As shown in Figure 3, the level of NF-κB and IL-1βin the L group was not significantly different from that in the C group, while the level of NF-κB and IL-1β in the S group was significantly higher than that in the C group. The level of NF-κB and IL-1β in the SL group was significantly lower than that in the S group. These results suggested that sevoflurane could trigger inflammation and liraglutide could have an anti-inflammation effect on aged brains subjected to sevoflurane anesthesia.

Figure 3

Expression of NF-KB and IL-1β detected by ELISA. ∗∗P < 0.01 vs. C group; #P < 0.05 vs. the S group; &&P < 0.01 vs. the L group.

4. Discussion

According to statistics, as early as 2015, the proportion of the population over 60 years of age (2.22 billion people) for the total population in China exceeded 16%, indicating that China has already entered an aging society for years. POCD caused by general anesthesia during the surgery in elderly patients has become a hot issue in the aging society because of the adverse impacts of the clinical manifestations of the various symptoms on the quality of life. And it is significant to find an effective drug to relief anesthesia-related POCD. Nevertheless, there few medical solutions for POCD caused by anesthesia currently. Song et al. [23] found that GLP-1 and its analogues could inhibit the inflammatory response and demyelination in rats with autoimmune encephalitis by regulating the pAMPK pathway, autophagy, and NLRP3 pathway. The above finding indicates that GLP-1 and its analogues can improve POCD caused by anesthesia.

In this study, it is found that aged rats suffered severe POCD after anesthesia with 3% sevoflurane in Morris Water Maze Task, which almost caused complete loss of cognitive function and conscious activity in the rats. The results of this study are consistent with those previously observed by Xiao et al. [24]. A series of findings have suggested that 3% sevoflurane can result in spatial and nonspatial hippocampus-dependent learning and memory deficits. And with prolonging of sevoflurane treatment, POCD get more and more severe [25-27]. In this study, aged rats anesthetized with sevoflurane were injected with liraglutide at a dose of 25 nmol/kg daily. When a sufficient dosage of liraglutide was reached, some cognitive functions of aged rats were recovered. Besides, liraglutide treatment was limited by time. Specifically, POCD rats did not reach the platform until the second day; and after that, long-tern liraglutide treatment could not improve cognitive function of the rats. So compared with the C group, the rats in the L group did not recover their cognitive function completely.

This study performed systematic analysis of hippocampus by HE staining and TUNEL assay, the detection of Bax and Bcl-1 expression changes, and caspase-3 activity changes. According to the analysis results, compared with the SL group, the S group showed more severe karyopyknosis and apoptosis, while the SL group exhibited similar apoptosis with the C group. Compared with the S group, the expression proportion of apoptotic cell Bax and antiapoptotic cell Bcl-2 doubled in rats in the SL group. And caspase-3 activity in the hippocampus of rats was 33.26% lower in the SL group than in the S group. According to the above results, sevoflurane anesthesia could accelerate apoptosis of hippocampal neurons; liraglutide could recover cognitive function of rats through its antiapoptotic effects to some extent. The results of this study are basically consistent with the experimental results performed by Mandour et al. [28] in a diabetic rat model. Mandour et al. and Kabel et al. [28, 29] found that GLP-1 and its analogues could reduce the occurrence of inflammatory responses in diabetic rat models as well as neuritis rat models. In this study, ELISA was utilized to detect the distribution of inflammatory factors in hippocampal tissue. And the results showed that the accumulation of NF-KB and IL-1β was reduced by 37.50% and 32.43%, respectively, in rats in the SL group compared with the S group, which was basically consistent with the findings of previous studies.

In this study, we not only set the experimental group, control group, and blank control group but also applied detection methods based on gold standard, which guaranteed the reliability of the experimental results to some extent. A series of experimental steps in this study were carried out on basis of the previous classic test steps, so some logic was included. The major drawback of this study was that the model did not reproduce the clinical situation, so various factors might result in the occurrence of POCD. Secondly, this study did not set different anesthetic concentration gradients to verify the effect of GLP-1 and its analogs on different degrees of POCD. This study confirmed the improvement of liraglutide on cognitive function of aged rats under sevoflurane anesthesia through antiapoptosis and anti-inflammation. However, further studies are needed to verify the effect of liraglutide on aged patients with POCD after anesthesia.

5. Conclusion

In conclusion, liraglutide was effective on improving the cognitive function in aged rats subjected to 3% sevoflurane anesthesia by a combined mechanism of antiapoptosis and anti-inflammation. The effect of the liraglutide treatment was observed to rely on the time duration at the beginning and then reached a plateau. In future studies, we will continue to explore the effect of liraglutide on sevoflurane-induced POCD aged rats and achieve further recovery of cognitive function. This work represents the first study reporting the protective effect of Liraglutide on aged brains from sevoflurane toxicity and clarifying its mechanism. Results obtained here could be useful to seeking for an effective medical solution to POCD caused by sevoflurane anesthesia.