Cerebrovascular disease, an important cause of
acute ischemic stroke, has attracted worldwide attention.
Oxycodone has been widely used to treat various painful disorders. This study was designed to explore the mechanism of
oxycodone in
oxygen-
glucose deprivation/reoxygenation (OGD/R)-induced brain microvascular endothelial cell model. For the reliability of the results in the following experiments, the viability was firstly detected using
CCK-8. With the application of LDH, TEER and TUNEL assays, the LDH expression, permeability and apoptosis of brain microvascular endothelial cells were detected, respectively. Besides, the
mRNA and
protein expressions of
tight junction proteins and RhoA were measured using RT-qPCR and Western blot. Moreover, RT-qPCR was employed to evaluate the expressions of inflammatory
cytokines. Western blot was adopted to measure the levels of RhoA, ROCK, MLC2 and apoptosis-related
proteins. The results revealed that
oxycodone attenuated permeability damage, inflammatory factor release and apoptosis of OGD/R-induced brain microvascular endothelial cells in a dose-dependent manner. It was also found that
oxycodone could reduce the expressions of RhoA, ROCK and MLC2 in brain microvascular endothelial cells induced by OGD/R. More importantly,
oxycodone exhibited desirable effects on OGD/R-induced brain microvascular endothelial cells through RhoA/ROCK/MLC2 signal. In conclusion,
oxycodone relieved permeability damage and apoptosis of OGD/R-induced brain microvascular endothelial cells through RhoA/ROCK/MLC2 signal, suggesting that
oxycodone might be an effective method for the improvement of
cerebral ischemia-
reperfusion injury.