Hydrogen sulfide protects neonatal rat medulla oblongata against prenatal cigarette smoke exposure via anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects.

We previously demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) protected neonatal rat medulla oblongata from prenatal cigarette smoke exposure (CSE) via anti-apoptotic effect. The present work further investigated the involvement of anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects of H2S in the protection. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into NaCl, CSE, CSE + NaHS (a donor of H2S) and NaHS groups. All the tests were performed with corresponding neonatal rats. Nissl staining revealed that NaHS treatment ameliorated neuronal chromatolysis in the hypoglossal nucleus and nucleus ambiguus resulted from prenatal CSE. Moreover, NaHS eliminated decrease of glutathione level, increase of malondialdehyde content and inhibition of superoxide dismutase activity within neonatal rat medulla oblongata caused by prenatal CSE. NaHS also relieved the up-regulation of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β and interleukin-6 in the medulla oblongata of the neonatal CSE rats. These results suggest that H2S can alleviate prenatal CSE-induced injuries of neonatal rat medulla oblongata through anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects.