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Metformin Improves Functional Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury via Autophagy Flux Stimulation

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Abstract

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe neurological disease with few efficacious drugs. Autophagy is a cellular process to confront with stress after SCI and considered to be a therapeutic target of SCI. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic effect of metformin on functional recovery after SCI and its underlying mechanism of autophagy regulation. Using a rat model of traumatic SCI, we found improved function recovery which was paralleled by a reduction of apoptosis after metformin treatment. We further examined autophagy via detecting autophagosomes by transmission electron microscopy and immunofluorescence, as well as autophagy markers by western blot in each groups. The results showed that the number of autophagosomes and expression of autophagy markers such as LC3 and beclin1 were increased in SCI group, while autophagy substrate protein p62 as well as ubiquitinated proteins were found to accumulate in SCI group, indicating an impaired autophagy flux in SCI. But, metformin treatment attenuated the accumulation of p62 and ubiquitinated proteins, suggesting a stimulative effect of autophagy flux by metformin. Blockage of autophagy flux by chloroquine partially abolished the apoptosis inhibition and functional recovery effect of metformin on SCI, which suggested that the protective effect of metformin on SCI was through autophagy flux stimulation. Activation of AMPK as well as inhibition of its downstream mTOR signaling were detected under metformin treatment in vivo and in vitro; inhibition of AMPK signaling by compound C suppressed autophagy flux induced by metformin in vitro, indicating that AMPK signaling was involved in the effect of metformin on autophagy flux regulation. Together, these results illustrated that metformin improved functional recovery effect through autophagy flux stimulation and implied metformin to be a potential drug for SCI therapy.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (81401871, 81401162, 81572227, 81501907, and 81371988), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LY15H060008, LY14H170002, and Y2110466), Zhejiang Medical Science Foundation (2013KYA127 and 2013KYB177), and Wenzhou Science and Technology Bereau Foundation (S20100048 and Y20100357)

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  1. Department of Orthopaedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital, Wenzhou Medical University, Wenzhou, 325000, Zhejiang Province, China

    Di Zhang, Jun Xuan, Bin-bin Zheng, Yu-long Zhou, Yan Lin, Yao-sen Wu, Yi-fei Zhou, Yi-xing Huang, Quan Wang, Li-yan Shen, Cong Mao, Xiang-yang Wang, Nai-feng Tian, Hua-Zi Xu & Xiao-lei Zhang

  2. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Orthopaedics, Wenzhou, 325000, Zhejiang Province, China

    Di Zhang, Jun Xuan, Bin-bin Zheng, Yu-long Zhou, Yan Lin, Yao-sen Wu, Yi-fei Zhou, Yi-xing Huang, Quan Wang, Li-yan Shen, Cong Mao, Xiang-yang Wang, Nai-feng Tian, Hua-Zi Xu & Xiao-lei Zhang

  3. Department of Orthopaedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, Zhejiang Province, China

    Yan Wu

  4. Chinese Orthopaedic Regenerative Medicine Society, Hangzhou, China

    Xiao-lei Zhang

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  1. Di Zhang
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Correspondence to Nai-feng Tian, Hua-Zi Xu or Xiao-lei Zhang.

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Zhang, D., Xuan, J., Zheng, Bb. et al. Metformin Improves Functional Recovery After Spinal Cord Injury via Autophagy Flux Stimulation. Mol Neurobiol 54, 3327–3341 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12035-016-9895-1

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