Hypoxic preconditioned mesenchymal stem cells ameliorate rat brain injury after cardiopulmonary resuscitation by suppressing neuronal pyroptosis

Cardiac arrest (CA) can result in cerebral ischaemia–reperfusion injury and poor neurological outcomes. While bone marrow‐derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) have been shown to have protective effects in brain ischaemic disease, their efficacy can be reduced by the poor oxygen environment. In this study, we investigated the neuroprotective effects of hypoxic preconditioned BMSCs (HP‐BMSCs) and normoxic BMSCs (N‐BMSCs) in a cardiac arrest rat model by examining their ability to ameliorate cell pyroptosis. The mechanism underlying the process was also explored. Cardiac arrest was induced in rats for 8 min and surviving rats received 1 × 106 normoxic/hypoxic BMSCs or PBS via intracerebroventricular (ICV) transplantation. Neurological function of rats was evaluated using neurological deficit scores (NDSs) and examined for brain pathology. Serum S100B and neuron‐specific enolase (NSE) levels and cortical proinflammatory cytokines were measured to evaluate brain injury. Pyroptosis‐related proteins in the cortex after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) were measured using western blotting and immunofluorescent staining. Transplanted BMSCs were tracked using bioluminescence imaging. Results showed significantly better neurological function and neuropathological damage after transplantation with HP‐BMSCs. In addition, HP‐BMSCs reduced levels of pyroptosis‐related proteins in the rat cortex after CPR and significantly reduced levels of biomarkers for brain injury. Mechanistically, HP‐BMSCs alleviated brain injury by reducing the expressions of HMGB1, TLR4, NF‐κB p65, p38 MAPK and JNK in the cortex. Our study demonstrated that hypoxic preconditioning could enhance the efficacy of BMSCs in alleviating post‐resuscitation cortical pyroptosis. This effect may be related to the regulation of the HMGB1/TLR4/NF‐κB, MAPK signalling pathways.