Polydatin alleviates traumatic spinal cord injury by reducing microglial inflammation via regulation of iNOS and NLRP3 inflammasome pathway.

Polydatin is a glucoside of resveratrol with lots of functional properties in the central nervous system, such as anti-edema, anti-oxidation and anti-inflammation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of polydatin on traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) and explore the relative mechanisms. SCI models were established using the weight-drop method in rats, additionally, single polydatin administration (20, 40 mg/kg body weight) remarkably improved motor function of SCI rat, along with decreased nitric oxide (NO) generation and inflammatory factor (IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α) production in spinal cord tissues. Similar to the results of in vivo experiments, the inflammatory response was aggravated with the intervention of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in BV2 microglia. However, polydatin treatment (1, 2 and 4 μM) inhibited iNOS expression, decreased NLRP3 inflammasome activation, which subsequently relieved microglial inflammation. Above all, our data indicated that polydatin possessed neuroprotective effects in SCI rats, possibly by suppressing iNOS expression and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in microglia.