Conclusion
Bupivacaine may cause neuronal DNA damage and PARP-1 activation in pregnant mice. PARP-1 further obstructed autophagic flux and ultimately led to neurotoxicity.
Methods
Furthermore, the etiology of bupivacaine-mediated neurotoxicity in obstetric patients remains unclear. Female C57BL/6 mice were intrathecally injected with 0.75% bupivacaine on the 18th day of pregnancy. We used immunohistochemistry to examine DNA damage after bupivacaine treatment in pregnant mice and measured γ-H2AX (Ser139) and 8-OHdG in the spinal cord. A PARP-1 inhibitor (PJ34) and autophagy inhibitor (3-MA) were administered with bupivacaine in pregnant mice. Parp-1flox/flox mice were crossed with Nes-Cre transgenic mice to obtain neuronal conditional knockdown mice. Then, LC3B and P62 staining were performed to evaluate autophagic flux in the spinal cords of pregnant wild-type (WT) and Parp-1-/- mice. We performed transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to evaluate autophagosomes.
Objective
Severe neurologic complications after spinal anesthesia are rare but highly distressing, especially in pregnant women. Bupivacaine is widely used in spinal anesthesia, but its neurotoxic effects have gained attention.
Results
The present study showed that oxidative stress-mediated DNA damage and neuronal injury were increased after bupivacaine treatment in the spinal cords of pregnant mice. Moreover, PARP-1 was significantly activated, and autophagic flux was disrupted. Further studies revealed that PARP-1 knockdown and autophagy inhibitors could alleviate bupivacaine-mediated neurotoxicity in pregnant mice.