Mild hypothermia improves neurological outcome in mice after cardiopulmonary resuscitation through Silent Information Regulator 1-actviated autophagy

Mild hypothermia treatment (MHT) improves the neurological function of cardiac arrest (CA) patients, but the exact mechanisms of recovery remain unclear. Herein, we generated a CA and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) mouse model to elucidate such function. Naïve mice were randomly divided into two groups, a normothemia (NT) group, in which animals had normal body temperature, and a MHT group, in which animals had a body temperature of 33 °C (range: 32–34 °C), after the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), followed by CA/CPR. MHT significantly improved the survival rate of CA/CPR mice compared with NT. Mechanistically, MHT increased the expression of Silent Information Regulator 1 (Sirt1) and decreased P53 phosphorylation (p-P53) in the cortex of CA/CPR mice, which coincided with the elevated autophagic flux. However, Sirt1 deletion compromised the neuroprotection offered by MHT, indicating that Sirt1 plays an important role. Consistent with the observations obtained from in vivo work, our in vitro study utilizing cultured neurons subjected to oxygen/glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R) also indicated that Sirt1 knockdown increased OGD/R-induced neuron necrosis and apoptosis, which was accompanied by decreased autophagic flux and increased p-P53. However, the depletion of P53 did not suppress neuron death, suggesting that P53 was not critically involved in MHT-induced neuroprotection. In contrast, the application of autophagic inhibitor 3-methyladenine attenuated MHT-improved neuron survival after OGD/R, further demonstrating that increased autophagic flux significantly contributes to MHT-linked neuroprotection of CA/CRP mice. Our findings indicate that MHT improves neurological outcome of mice after CA/CPR through Sirt1-mediated activation of autophagic flux.