Dong Yi-Long, Zuo Ping-Ping, Li Qing, Liu Feng-Hua, Dai Shun-Ling, Ge Qin-Sheng
Department of Pharmacology, Institute of Basic Science, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, 5 Dong Dan San Tiao, Beijing, 100005, China.
Endocrine. 2007 Oct;32(2):206-11. doi: 10.1007/s12020-007-9032-z. Epub 2007 Dec 5.
Although experimental evidence has shown that the neuroprotective effect from estrogen may benefit postmenopausal women, but the clinical use of estrogen was limited by the risk of increasing the cases of mammary and endometrial cancer. This study was designed to evaluate the neuroprotective effects of a novel phytoestrogen alpha-zearalanol (alpha-ZAL), on the cultured rat hippocampal neurons. Following a 24-h exposure of the cells to amyloid beta-peptide fragment 25-35 (A beta 25-35), a significant reduction in cell survival and activities of total superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), as well as increased of malondialdehyde (MDA) were observed. Preincubation of the cells with alpha-ZAL or 17 beta-estradiol(17 beta-E2) prior to A beta 25-35 exposure elevated the cell survival and SOD and GSH-Px activities, and decreased the level of MDA. These data suggested that the phytoestrogen alpha-ZAL, like estrogen, may effectively antagonize A beta 25-35-induced cell toxicity, which might be beneficial for neurons.
尽管实验证据表明雌激素的神经保护作用可能使绝经后女性受益，但雌激素的临床应用因增加乳腺癌和子宫内膜癌病例的风险而受到限制。本研究旨在评估新型植物雌激素α-玉米赤霉醇（α-ZAL）对培养的大鼠海马神经元的神经保护作用。在细胞暴露于淀粉样β肽片段25-35（Aβ25-35）24小时后，观察到细胞存活率、总超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）和谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶（GSH-Px）活性显著降低，丙二醛（MDA）水平升高。在Aβ25-35暴露之前用α-ZAL或17β-雌二醇（17β-E2）对细胞进行预孵育，可提高细胞存活率以及SOD和GSH-Px活性，并降低MDA水平。这些数据表明，植物雌激素α-ZAL与雌激素一样，可能有效拮抗Aβ25-35诱导的细胞毒性，这可能对神经元有益。
