Neuroprotective effect of paeoniflorin on anoxically cultured rat hippocampal neurons

    REN Yuª²Hong, LIU Xiª²Nan, ZHOU Baiª²Yu

    Department of Neurology, Chinese PLA 451 Hospital, Xi¬ðan 710054, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To investigate whether paeoniflorin has the neuroprotective effect on anoxically cultured rat hippocampal neurons. METHODS: Hippocampal neurons were taken and grown for 10ª²14 d, then divided randomly into 4 groups according to different culture mediums added with 5 ¦Ìmol/L nimodipine, 40 or 80 ¦Ìmol/L paeoniflorin, or no any medicine (as control group). Acute anoxia model was induced with 950 mL/L NO2+50 mL/L CO2 mixture gases.The viable cells were counted by trypan blue method. The apoptosis rate and death rate of hippocampal neurons was tested by flow cytometry (FCM). The contents of MDA and NO and the activities of SOD in the supernatants of cell culture were determined by biochemical methods. RESULTS: In comparison with the control group, paeoniflorin significantly increased the activities of SOD and decreased the contents of MDA and NO in the culture supernatants (P<0.01) and decreased the apoptosis rate of hippocampal neurons, which showed a doseª²effect relationship. CONCLUSION: The paeoniflorin has the neuroprotective effect on hippocampal neurons against anoxic injury. The mechanism underlying this effect of paeoniflorin may be mediated by eliminating the free radicals, by increasing the activities of antioxidative enzymes to inhibit the oxidative damages caused by anoxia. ......