Protective effects of Angelica dahurica polysaccharide on alleviating hippocampus injury induced by ovariectomized/D-galactose in rats by inhibiting oxidative stress and its serum metabolomics

We established in vivo models of hippocampal oxidative injury to investigate the protective effect of Angelica dahurica polysaccharide (ADP) on the hippocampus. ADP alleviated ovariectomized/D-Galactose (OVX/D-Gal)-induced hippocampal damage and enhanced antioxidant capacity (increased SOD/GSH-Px, decreased MDA). Additionally, ADP activated the Nrf2 pathway (upregulated Nrf2, downregulated NQO1/HO-1) and inhibited apoptosis (upregulated Bcl-2, downregulated Bax/cleaved caspase-3). Untargeted metabolomics revealed that ADP reversed seven oxidative stress-related metabolites, and pathway analysis implicated glycerophospholipid metabolism in its antioxidant mechanism. These results demonstrated that ADP protects against OVX/D-Gal-induced hippocampal oxidative injury by activating Nrf2, enhancing antioxidant capacity, inhibiting apoptosis, and regulating glycerophospholipid metabolism.