Abstract
Cerebral infarction (CI), a blood circulatory disorder, causes a high mortality and disability rate worldwide. Intriguingly, a newly discovered neuropeptide, Cortistatin (CST), has been indicated to inhibit the cortical activity. In our research, we aimed to explore the functional relevance of CST in neural stem cells (NSCs) in CI rats. The expression of CST was determined in NSCs induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD). NSCs isolated from the embryonic rat brain were treated with OGD to establish an in vitro CI model while dithiothreitol (DTT) was introduced to induce endoplasmic reticulum stress (ERS), which were evaluated by assessment of GRP94, caspase-12 and CHOP expression. Then CST expression was restored by transfection of oe-CST, followed by assessment of NSC proliferation ability and cytotoxicity. Finally, the expression of CST and its receptor Somatostatin receptor subtype 2 (SSTR2) was quantified for mechanism exploration. CST was downregulated in CI, which was further confirmed in NSCs under OGD treatment. Overexpressed CST was found to promote cell activity and attenuate OGD-induced cytotoxicity of NSCs. Meanwhile, it was observed that the injured proliferation ability of NSCs was restored by CST overexpression. Besides, lower expression of GRP94, caspase-12 and CHOP was indicative of suppressed occurrence of ERS by CST. Mechanically, CST inhibited ERS through SSTR2. CST could facilitate the proliferation of NSCs in CI induced by OGD, ultimately highlighting a novel therapeutic target for CI treatment.