Aspirin protects human trophoblast HTR-8/SVneo cells from H₂O₂-Induced oxidative stress via NADPH/ROS pathway

Pre-eclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy complication that can lead to maternal, fetal, and neonatal deaths in clinical practice. Accumulation of trophoblastic reactive oxygen species (ROS), which could result in oxidative stress and cell apoptosis, is considered to play an important role in PE pathology. It has been reported that aspirin has a positive effect on PE treatment in high-risk pregnant women.

In vitro, extravillous trophoblast cell line (HTR-8/SVneo) were treated with hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂, 150 μM) after the presence of aspirin (90 and 120 μM) with or without GKT137831 (a Nox4 inhibitor, 20 μM). A series of experiments including CCK-8 assays, flow cytometry, biochemical testing, and Western Blotting etc. verified the protective effects and potential mechanisms of aspirin against oxidative stress-induced damage in PE.

Our results demonstrated that H₂O₂ induces oxidative stress and apoptosis in HTR8/SVneo cells. However, aspirin pretreatment rescue cell viability and reduce LDH activity of HTR-8/SVneo cells. Aspirin can suppress the ROS overproduction and MDA level while increase SOD content and CAT activity. In addition, aspirin pretreatment significantly alleviated cell apoptosis and suppressed the expression of Nox4 and its subunits (p22phox and p47phox) at protein and mRNA levels. The above results were more obvious after the combination of aspirin with GKT137831.

This study demonstrated that aspirin protects human trophoblasts against H₂O₂-induced oxidative stress and cell apoptosis via suppressing NADPH/ROS pathway. These findings provide novel insights for the application of aspirin as a protective and curative agent against PE.