Effects of PTEN inhibition on the regulation of Tau phosphorylation in rat cortical neuronal injury after oxygen and glucose deprivation.

Objective: This report investigated the involvement of the PTEN pathway in the regulation of Tau phosphorylation using an oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) model with rat cortical neurons.

Methods: Primary cortical neurons were used to establish the oxygen and glucose deprivation (OGD) model in vitro. These were randomly divided into control, OGD, bpV+OGD, As+OGD, Se+OGD and Mock treatment groups. The neuron viability was assessed by MTT, the cell apoptosis was detected using TUNEL staining. The expression of Phospho-PTEN/PTEN, Phospho-Tau/Tau, Phospho-Akt/Akt and Phospho-GSK-3β/GSK-3β were detected by Western blotting.

Results: OGD induced Tau phosphorylation through PTEN and glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) activation, together with a decrease in AKT activity. Pre-treatment with bpv, a potent PTEN inhibitor, and PTEN antisense nucleotides decreased PTEN and GSK-3β activity and caused alterations in Tau phosphorylation. Neuronal apoptosis was also reduced.

Conclusions: The PTEN/Akt/GSK-3β/Tau pathway is involved in the regulation of neuronal injury, providing a novel route for protecting neurons following neonatal HI.