SUMMARY
Our previous study showed that a single lipopolysaccharide (LPS) treatment to neonatal rats could induce a long-lasting neuroinflammatory response and dopaminergic system injury late in life. This is evidenced by a sustained activation of microglia and elevated interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß) levels, as well as reduced tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) expression in the substantia nigra (SN) of P70 rat brain. The object of the current study was to test whether co-administration of IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra) protects against LPS-induced neurological dysfunction later in life. LPS (1 mg/kg) with or without IL-1ra (0.1 mg/kg), or sterile saline was injected intracerebrally into postnatal day 5 (P5) Sprague-Dawley male rat pups. Motor behavioral tests were carried out from P7 to P70 with subsequent examination of brain injury. Our results showed that neonatal administration of IL-1ra significantly attenuated LPS-induced motor behavioral deficits, loss of TH immunoreactive neurons, as well as microglia activation in the SN of P70 rats. These data suggest that IL-1ß may play a pivotal role in mediating a chronic neuroinflammation status by a single LPS exposure in early postnatal life, and blockading IL-1ß might be a novel approach to protect the dopaminergic system against perinatal infection/inflammation exposure.