Protective Effects of Folic Acid and Vitamin C Against Iron Overload at the in vitro Blood-Brain Barrier

Brain iron accumulation increases with age and this is more common in patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease. Also iron overload in addition to zinc accompanies with plaques containing β-amyloid (AP) of Alzheimer’s Disease. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a dynamic interface between the blood and the brain that plays an important role in maintaining central nervous system (CNS) homeostasis. In our study, protective effects of vitamin C and folic acid against iron overload in the in vitro blood-brain barrier model were investigated. Four different groups were created for the experimental procedure: 1) Control, 2) FeSO4, 3) FeSO4 + Vit C, 4) FeSO4 + Folic acid for toxicity experiments. After iron overload, permeability differences of Vitamin C and folic acid in vitro BBB model were assayed using Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) Bradford protein assay. Both substances were found to have a protective effect against iron sulphate-induced damage. Also, vitamin C and folic acid significantly decrease the permeability after increasing caused by iron sulfate in BBB model. Considering the toxic effects of high concentrations of vitamin C, systemic effects of folic acid should also be investigated by in vivo studies to compare with vitamin C in ageing.