Protective effects of parecoxib on rat primary astrocytes from oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide

Objective To investigate the protective effects of parecoxib from oxidative stress induced by hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in rat astrocytes in vitro. Methods All experiments included 4 groups: (1) negative control (NC) group, without any treatment; (2) H 2 O 2 treatment group, 100 µmol/L H 2 O 2 treatment for 24 h; (3) and (4) parecoxib pretreatment groups, 80 and 160 µmol/L parecoxib treatment for 24 h, respectively, and then treated with 100 µmol/L H 2 O 2 . Several indices were investigated, and the expressions of Bax, Bcl-2, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were quantified. Results Compared to the NC group, exposure to H 2 O 2 resulted in significant morphological changes, which could be reversed by pretreatment of parecoxib. In addition, H 2 O 2 treatment led to loss of viability (P=0.026) and increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels ( P <0.001), and induced apoptosis ( P <0.01) in the primary astrocytes relative to the NC group. However, in the parecoxib pretreatment groups, all the above changes reversed significantly ( P <0.05) as compared to the H 2 O 2 treatment group, and were nearly unchanged when compared to the NC group. Mechanical investigation showed that dysregulated Bax, Bcl-2, and BDNF could be implicated in these changes. Conclusions Our results indicated that parecoxib provided a protective effect from oxidative stress induced by exposure to H 2 O 2 .