Research reportPost-injury treatment with lipopolysaccharide or lipooligosaccharide protects rat neuronal and glial cell cultures

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major cause of disability in civilians and military personnel worldwide that is caused by the acceleration force of a primary shockwave, blast wind or the force of a direct contact. Following the primary injury, secondary injury is caused by activation of the immune response due to an influx of neuro-inflammatory cells, increased production of inflammatory cytokines, and edema. In ischemia models pre-conditioning with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) has been shown to be neuroprotective, and post-injury conditioning with LPS was found to be protective in a spinal cord and an acute brain injury model. In this study, we utilized an in vitro scratch model of TBI to assess the effect of post-injury treatment with Escherichia coli LPS and Neisseria meningitidis lipooligosaccharide (LOS) on cell death and cytokine induction by assessing the level of lactate dehydrodgenase released from cells and rat multiplex cytokine assays. Our results showed that post-injury treatment of C6 glioma cells with either the LPS or the LOS reduced cell death when compared to scratched controls treated with media only. Post-injury treatment of the primary mixed neuronal cultures with LPS reduced cell death and resulted in a significant up-regulation in IL-10 when compared to controls. With LOS post-scratch treatment of the primary cell cultures, we found that IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α were significantly upregulated in addition to IL-10 compared to the media-only controls. The results strongly support additional testing of the neuroprotective ability of post-injury treatment with LPS or LOS in models of TBI.

► In vitro scratch of C6 glioma and primary neuronal cells used to model TBI ► Treatment with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipooligosaccharide (LOS) studied ► LPS and LOS treatment post-injury reduced death of C6 cells ► LPS treatment reduced death of primary neuronal cells ► IL-10 was upregulated in primary neuronal cells by LPS treatment