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Astaxanthin Ameliorates Blood Pressure in Salt-Induced Prehypertensive Rats Through ROS/MAPK/NF-κB Pathways in the Hypothalamic Paraventricular Nucleus

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Abstract

Astaxanthin (AST) has a variety of biochemical effects, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, and antihypertensive functions. The aim of the present study was to determine whether AST ameliorates blood pressure in salt-induced prehypertensive rats by ROS/MAPK/NF-κB pathways in hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus.

To explore the central effects of AST on the development of blood pressure, prehypertensive rats were induced by a high-salt diet (HS, 8% NaCl) and its control groups were treated with normal-salt diet (NS, 0.3% NaCl). The Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rats with HS diet for 6 weeks received AST or vehicle by gastric perfusion for 6 weeks. Compared to those with NS diet, rats with HS diet exhibited increased mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR). These increases were associated with higher plasma level of norepinephrine (NE), interleukin 1β (IL-1β), and interleukin 6 (IL-6); elevated PVN level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), NOX2, and NOX4, that of IL-1β, IL-6, monocyte chemotactic protein 1 (MCP-1), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), phosphorylation extracellular-signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK1/2), phosphorylation Jun N-terminal kinases (p-JNK), nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB) activity; and lower levels of IL-10, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and catalase (CAT) in the PVN. In addition, our data demonstrated that chronic AST treatment ameliorated these changes in the HS but not NS diet rats. These data suggested that AST could alleviate prehypertensive response in HS-induced prehypertension through ROS/MAPK/NF-κB pathways in the PVN.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81770426, 82070439, 82070440), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. PY3A044, xjh012019059), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Nos. 2019M663750, 2020M683440), and Natural Science Basic Research Program of Shaanxi (Nos. 2021JQ-068, 2020JM-079, 2019JQ-605).

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  1. Hong-Li Gao and Xiao-Jing Yu have contributed equally to this study.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, Key Laboratory of Environment and Genes Related to Diseases of Education Ministry of China, Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Shaanxi Engineering and Research Center of Vaccine, Xi’an, 710061, China

    Hong-Li Gao, Xiao-Jing Yu, Yan Zhang, Chen-Long Wang, Yi-Ming Lei, Jia-Yue Yu, Dong-Miao Zong, Kai-Li Liu, Dong-Dong Zhang, Ying Li, Hua Tian & Yu-Ming Kang

  2. Department of Clinical Medicine, Medical School of Shanxi Datong University, Datong, China

    Nian-Ping Zhang

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Contributions

YK, HG, and XY designed the study. HG, WC, LY, and KL performed all experiments. HG and NJ also performed the data analysis and drafted the manuscript. YZ, YL, DZ, JY, and DZ participated in data analysis. YL, DZ, HT, and NZ critically revised the manuscript. All authors reviewed the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nian-Ping Zhang or Yu-Ming Kang.

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Gao, HL., Yu, XJ., Zhang, Y. et al. Astaxanthin Ameliorates Blood Pressure in Salt-Induced Prehypertensive Rats Through ROS/MAPK/NF-κB Pathways in the Hypothalamic Paraventricular Nucleus. Cardiovasc Toxicol 21, 1045–1057 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12012-021-09695-6

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