Rhoifolin provides neuroprotection against spinal cord injury by attenuation of oxidative stress, inflammation and apoptosis in rats

Rhoifolin is a plant flavonoid known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study was taken to identify the effect of rhoifolin on Spinal cord injury (SCI) in a rat model.

Motor function of SCI rats was carried out by using in Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan test. Expression levels of different proteins such as IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, NF-κB p65, p-IκB-α, p38MAPK, caspase-3 and caspase-9 were carried out by using western blotting analysis. The Concentration of proteins was determined by using Bradford's method. Estimating of Glutathione (GSH), Glutathione peroxidase (GP_x) and Superoxide dismutase (SOD) was carried out by using commercially available kit.

Rhoifolin was tested at 20 and 40 mg/kg doses and showed a significant improvement in the motor function of SCI rats in Basso, Beattie and Bresnahan test. Moreover, rhoifolin treatment also attenuated pro-inflammatory cytokine levels such as IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α. The NF-κB pathway showed a significant attenuation as evident in the significant downregulation of the NF-κB p65 and p-IκB-α levels. In addition, rhoifolin treatment also caused a significant reduction in oxidative stress, as evident from changes in intracellular levels of Glutathione, GPx, MDA and SOD in the articular cartilage tissue. Further, we also tested rhoifolin for its effect on the apoptotic pathway by estimating the intracellular levels of p38MAPK, caspase-3 and caspase-9. The current results show that rhoifolin has a neuroprotective in SCI rat model.