The Protective Effect of Gangliosides on Lead (Pb)-Induced Neurotoxicity Is Mediated by Autophagic Pathways

Hongtao Meng, Lan Wang, Junhong He and Zhufeng Wang
Additional contact information
Hongtao Meng: Department of Neurology, Shanxi Hospital of the Armed Police Force, Xi’an 710054, China
Lan Wang: Department of Neurology, Shanxi Hospital of the Armed Police Force, Xi’an 710054, China
Junhong He: Department of Neurology, Shanxi Hospital of the Armed Police Force, Xi’an 710054, China
Zhufeng Wang: Department of Neurology, Shanxi Hospital of the Armed Police Force, Xi’an 710054, China

IJERPH, 2016, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-11

Abstract: Lead (Pb) is a ubiquitous environmental and industrial pollutant and can affect intelligence development and the learning ability and memory of children. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken to protect the central nervous system (CNS) from Pb toxicity. Gangliosides are sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids that are constituents of mammalian cell membranes and are more abundantly expressed in the CNS. Studies have shown that gangliosides constitute a useful tool in the attempt to promote functional recovery of CNS and can reverse Pb-induced impairments of synaptic plasticity in rats. However, the detailed mechanisms have yet to be fully understood. In our present study, we tried to investigate the role of gangliosides in Pb-induced injury in hippocampus neurons and to further confirm the detailed mechanism. Our results show that Pb-induced injuries in the spatial reference memory were associated with a reduction of cell viability and cell apoptosis, and treatment with gangliosides markedly ameliorated the Pb-induced injury by inhibition of apoptosis action. Gangliosides further attenuated Pb-induced the abnormal autophagic process by regulation of mTOR pathways. In summary, our study establishes the efficacy of gangliosides as neuroprotective agents and provides a strong rationale for further studies on the underlying mechanisms of their neuroprotective functions.

Keywords: gangliosides; lead; apoptosis; autophagy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/365/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/4/365/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:4:p:365-:d:66513

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().