Hyperlipidemia exacerbates cerebral injury through oxidative stress, inflammation and neuronal apoptosis in MCAO/reperfusion rats

Recent studies showed that hyperglycemia enhanced brain damage when subjected to transient cerebral ischemic stroke. However, the etiologic link between them has been less known. In the present study, based on an experimental rat's model of hyperlipidemia combined with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury (I/R), we herein showed that hyperlipidemia induced by high-fat diet (HFD) resulted in considerable increase in serum triglycerides, cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and remarkable decrease in serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which associated with an exacerbation on neurological deficit, cerebral infarct and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated nick end labeling-positive cells in the ischemic hemisphere of cerebral I/R rats treated with HFD diet. The data showed that serum superoxide dismutase activity and glutathione peroxides content were significantly decreased, while malondialdehyde level was obviously increased by hyperlipidemia or cerebral I/R alone, especially by coexistence of hyperlipidemia and cerebral I/R; meantime, hyperlipidemia also enhanced cerebral I/R-induced protein expression of cytochrome P450 2E1 (CYP2E1) and the levels of pro-inflammatory factors tumor necrosis factor-alpha and IL-6 in the ischemic hemispheres. Furthermore, the combined action of hyperlipidemia and cerebral I/R resulted in a protein increase expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 compared to hyperlipidemia or cerebral I/R alone. Meanwhile, this study also showed that hyperlipidemia significantly enhanced cerebral I/R-induced transfer of cytochrome c from mitochondria to cytosolic and the protein expressions of Apaf-1 and caspase-3, but also decreased cerebral I/R-induced bcl-2 protein expression. The results reveal that hyperlipidemia exacerbates cerebral I/R-induced injury through the synergistic effect on CYP2E1 induction, which further induces reactive oxygen species formation, oxidative stress, inflammation and neuronal apoptosis by coexistence of hyperlipidemia and cerebral I/R.