The effect of resveratrol on neurodegeneration and blood brain barrier stability surrounding intracortical microelectrodes

The current study seeks to elucidate a biological mechanism which may mediate neuroinflammation, and decreases in both blood–brain barrier stability and neuron viability at the intracortical microelectrode-tissue interface. Here, we have focused on the role of pro-inflammatory reactive oxygen species. Specifically, adult rats implanted within intracortical microelectrodes were systemically administered the anti-oxidant, resveratrol, both the day before and the day of surgery. Animals were sacrificed at two or four weeks post-implantation for histological analysis of the neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative responses to the microelectrode. At two weeks post-implantation, we found animals treated with resveratrol demonstrated suppression of reactive oxygen species accumulation and blood–brain barrier instability, accompanied with increased density of neurons at the intracortical microelectrode-tissue interface. Four weeks post-implantation, animals treated with resveratrol exhibited indistinguishable levels of markers for reactive oxygen species and neuronal nuclei density in comparison to untreated control animals. However, of the neurons that remained, resveratrol treated animals were seen to display reductions in the density of degenerative neurons compared to control animals at both two and four weeks post-implantation. Initial mechanistic evaluation suggested the roles of both anti-oxidative enzymes and toll-like receptor 4 expression in facilitating microglia activation and the propagation of neurodegenerative inflammatory pathways. Collectively, our data suggests that short-term attenuation of reactive oxygen species accumulation and blood–brain barrier instability can result in prolonged improvements in neuronal viability around implanted intracortical microelectrodes, while also identifying potential therapeutic targets to reduce chronic intracortical microelectrode-mediated neurodegeneration.