Quercetin protects against diabetic retinopathy in rats by inducing heme oxygenase-1 expression
Guang-Rui Chai
Shu Liu
Hong-Wei Yang
Xiao-Long Chen
摘要：Quercetin is a widely-occurring flavonoid that protects against cancer, and improves memory and cardiovascular functions. However, whether quercetin exhibits therapeutic effects in diabetic retinopathy remains unclear. In this study, we established a rat model of streptozocin-induced diabetic retinopathy. Seventy-two hours later, the rats were intraperitoneally administered 150 mg/kg quercetin for 16 successive weeks. Quercetin markedly increased the thickness of the retinal cell layer, increased the number of ganglion cells, and decreased the overexpression of the pro-inflammatory factors interleukin-1β, interleukin-18, interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-α in the retinal tissue as well as the overexpression of high mobility group box-1 and the overactivation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Furthermore, quercetin inhibited the overexpression of TLR4 and NF-κBp65, reduced the expression of the pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and upregulated the neurotrophins brain-derived neurotrophic factor and nerve growth factor. Intraperitoneal injection of the heme oxygenase-1 inhibitor zinc protoporphyrin blocked the protective effect of quercetin. These findings suggest that quercetin exerts therapeutic effects in diabetic retinopathy possibly by inducing heme oxygenase-1 expression. This study was approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of China Medical University, China (approval No. 2016PS229K) on April 8, 2016.
机标关键词：
分类号：R453.9(治疗学)R741(神经病学)R774.1(视网膜及视神经疾病)
资助基金：This study was sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China,Nos.81200718(to HWY)and 81570866(to XLC)
论文发表日期：2021-07-28
在线出版日期：2025-08-15（本平台首次上网日期，不代表文献的发表时间）
页数：7( 1344-1350 )
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