Background: Cadmium is a heavy metal with significant toxicity. Cadmium is widely used in industry and has destructive effects on most body systems. Oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of neurotoxicity caused by cadmium. Ellagic acid is a phenolic compound that has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The aim of this study was to investigate protective effect of ellagic acid on cadmium-induced neurotoxicity in PC12 cells.
Methods: Neuronal PC12 cells were pretreated with various concentrations of ellagic acid (5, 10, and 20 μM) and then exposed to cadmium at a concentration of 10 μM for 24 h. Cell viability was measured by the MTT assay. Lipid peroxidation and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) were also investigated.
Findings: The results showed that ellagic acid at concentrations of 10 (67.8 ± 7.44, P = 0.046) and 20 μM (89.2 ± 7.54, P < 0.001) could increase the viability of PC12 cells exposed to cadmium by 16 and 37.4%, respectively. Ellagic acid effectively reduced lipid peroxidation compared to cadmium group (10 μM: 123.33 ± 12.47, P = 0.02; 20 μM: 115 ± 12.24, P = 0.005). Furthermore, ellagic acid prevented the decrease in TAC caused by cadmium toxicity (10 μM: 0.79 ± 0.10, P = 0.044; 20 μM: 0.82 ± 0.13, P = 0.025).
Conclusion: The present study showed that ellagic acid has a protective effect against cadmium-induced neurotoxicity by reducing oxidative stress. Therefore, these results indicated the importance of using ellagic acid as a promising therapeutic agent to prevent cadmium-induced neurotoxicity.