Hydrogen Sulfide Prevents Synaptic Plasticity from Vascular Dementia-Induced Damage via Inhibiting Autophagy on Rats

Abstract

Our previous study has demonstrated that hydrogen sulfide (H2S) alleviates neuronal damage induced by vascular dementia (VD) in rats, but the mechanism is still elusive. This study was taken to investigate whether the neuroprotection of H2S was related with autophagy. Adult male Wistar rats were subjected to the ligation of left and right common carotid arteries and administered sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS, 5.6 mg kg(-1) day(-1), i.p.), or vehicle (saline, i.p.) in NaHS+ VD and VD group respectively for 3 weeks. Our data showed that NaHS not only obviously ameliorated spatial learning and memory abilities, but also improved cognitive flexibility. Moreover, NaHS markedly increased long-term depression (LTD). Interestingly, NaHS decreased the expression of beclin-1 and the ratio of LC3-II/I, which indicated that NaHS inhibited the activation of autophagy induced by VD. These findings suggest that NaHS protects synaptic plasticity from VD-induced injury partly via inhibiting autophagy pathway.