Photobiomodulation mitigates LPS-induced astrocyte neuroinflammation via the STAT5A/SOCS3 axis

Neuroinflammation plays an important role in the occurrence and development of neurological diseases. In addition to microglia, the role of astrocytes in neuroinflammation has gradually attracted attention. Photobiomodulation (PBM), as a non-invasive, safe and effective treatment, has been shown to alleviate neuroinflammation and show potential in improving astrocyte activation. In this study, by analyzing the effects at different times, the spatiotemporal regulation and molecular mechanism of PBM on astrocytes were deeply explored. The results showed that PBM significantly attenuated LPS-induced upregulation of inflammatory factors and mitochondrial dysfunction in astrocytes under LPS stimulation for 4 hours and 24 hours. RNA-seq analysis showed that the JAK-STAT pathway played an important role in the early stage of astrocyte inflammatory response. PBM can promote the expression of Socs3 by activating Stat5a translocation to the nucleus, further inhibit the overactivation of the JAK-STAT inflammatory signaling pathway, and thus alleviate astrocyte inflammation. Taken together, this study provides new insights into the molecular mechanism of the potential application of PBM in the treatment of neuroinflammation.