Neuroprotective effect of propofol against cerebral ischemia injury was widely investigated. However, its mechanisms remain unclear. Phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT) signaling pathway is supposed as a cell survival pathway, and phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) is a negative regulator of AKT phosphorylation. Whether PTEN was involved in the protective effect of propofol against cerebral ischemia injury was not elucidated. In this study, the function of PTEN in the acute phase of cerebral ischemia injury was investigated. Our data showed that propofol promoted the PTEN degradation in the acute phase of cerebral ischemia injury and concurrently activated AKT phosphorylation. The increase of ubiquitinated PTEN caused by cerebral ischemia injury were degraded in propofol-pretreated rats. Moreover, we evidenced that proteasome activity was stimulated in propofol-treated rats. These data pointed that PTEN degradation was facilitated in the acute phase after propofol treatment possibly through activating ubiquitin-proteasome system. Therefore, we applied PTEN inhibitor-bpV before cerebral ischemia injury. Like propofol, bpV pretreatment also mitigated cerebral ischemia injury-induced cell loss in CA1 region and memory impairment. Taken together, our data suggest that PTEN degradation is neuroprotective against cerebral ischemia injury and propofol facilitates PTEN degradation to prevent hippocampal neuronal loss and memory deficit in cerebral ischemia injury.
Keywords: Memory deficit; PTEN; Propofol; Ubiquitin-proteasome system.