Antioxidants inhibit the inflammatory and apoptotic processes in an intermittent hypoxia model of sleep apnea

作者：da Rosa Darlan Pase^*; Forgiarini Luiz Felipe; Barbachan e Silva Mariel; Fiori Cintia Zappe; Andrade Cristiano Feijo; Martinez Denis; Marroni Norma Possa

来源：Inflammation Research, 2015, 64(1): 21-29.

DOI：10.1007/s00011-014-0778-5

• Sleep apnea
• Intermittent hypoxia
• Liver

Sleep apnea causes intermittent hypoxia (IH). We aimed to investigate the proteins related to oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis in liver tissue subjected to IH as a simulation of sleep apnea in conjunction with the administration of either melatonin (MEL, 200 mu L/kg) or N-acetylcysteine (NAC, 10 mg/kg).
Seventy-two adult male Balb-C mice were divided: simulation of IH (SIH), SIH + MEL, SIH + NAC, IH, IH + MEL and IH + NAC. The animals were subjected to simulations of sleep apnea for 8 h a day for 35 days. The data were analyzed with ANOVA and Tukey tests with the significance set at p < 0.05.
In IH, there was a significant increase in oxidative stress and expression of HIF-1a. In addition, we observed increase in the activation levels of NF-kB. This increase may be responsible for the increased expression of TNF-alpha and iNOS as well as the significant increase of VEGF signaling and expression of caspase-3 and caspase-6, which suggests an increase in apoptosis. In the groups treated with antioxidants, the analysis showed that the enzyme activity and protein levels were similar to those of the non-simulated group.
Thus, we show that IH causes liver inflammation and apoptosis, which may be protected with either MEL or NAC.

• 出版日期2015-1