Hydrogen Gas Protects Brain from Injury by Reducing Inflammation in Rats
- Authors
- Lingling Liu, Hongtao Zhang, Jiwei Wang, Yonghao Yu, Jun Chen
- Journal
- Chinese Critical Care Medicine
- Year
- 2023
- DOI
- 10.3760/cma.j.cn121430-20220712-00656
- Study Type
- Rat
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Breathing hydrogen gas helps reduce brain damage and inflammation in rats after a traumatic brain injury.
Key Finding
Hydrogen gas inhalation reduced brain swelling, inflammation, and neuronal cell death in rats with traumatic brain injury by suppressing NLRP3 inflammasome activation in the brain cortex.
Summary
Researchers gave rats with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) hydrogen gas to breathe and measured how it affected inflammation and cell death in the brain. They found that hydrogen gas reduced brain swelling, decreased the activation of inflammatory proteins (NLRP3 inflammasomes), lowered levels of inflammatory chemicals, and reduced the death of brain cells. The protective effects were similar to using a drug that blocks NLRP3, and combining hydrogen gas with that drug provided even greater benefits.
Practical Takeaway
This rat study suggests hydrogen gas may have neuroprotective properties for traumatic brain injury through anti-inflammatory mechanisms, but these findings cannot yet be applied to humans. Further research in human subjects would be needed to determine whether hydrogen gas inhalation could be a useful treatment for TBI in people.
Abstract (excerpt)
Objective: To investigate the effect of hydrogen gas on NOD-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasomes in the cerebral cortex of rats with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: 120 adult male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rates were randomly divided into 5 groups (n = 24): sham operation group (S group)…