Recently, it has been suggested that
anesthetic agents may have neuroprotective potency. The notion that
anesthetic agents can offer neuroprotection remains controversial.
Propofol, which is a short-acting
intravenous anesthetic agent, may have potential as a
neuroprotective agent. In this study, we tried to determine whether
propofol affected the viability of human
neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells by using the MTT assay. Surprisingly, our results showed that
propofol at a dose of 1-10 μM could improve cell proliferation. However, at higher doses (200 μM),
propofol appears to be cytotoxic. On the other hand,
propofol could up-regulate the expression of key
proteins involved in neuroprotection including
B-cell lymphoma 2 at a dose range of 1-10 μM, activation of phospho-
serine/threonine protein kinase at a dose range of 0.5-10 μM, and activation of phospho-
extracellular signal-regulated kinases at a dose range of 5-10 μM. Similarly, we demonstrate that
propofol (10 μM) could elevate
protein levels of
heat shock protein 90 and
heat shock protein 70. Therefore, we choose to utilize
a 10 μM concentration of
propofol to assess neuroprotective activities in our studies. In the following experiments, we used
dynorphin A to generate cytotoxic effects on SH-SY5Y cells. Our data indicate that
propofol (10 μM) could inhibit the cytotoxicity in SH-SY5Y cells induced by
dynorphin A. Furthermore,
propofol (10 μM) could decrease the expression of the p-P38
protein as well. These data together suggest that
propofol may have the potential to act as a
neuroprotective agent against various neurologic diseases. However, further delineation of the precise
neuroprotective effects of
propofol will need to be examined.