Department of Pharmacology, Medical College, Yanbian University, 13300, Yanji, Jilin Province, People's Republic of China.
Cytotechnology. 2009 Jul;60(1-3):125-32. doi: 10.1007/s10616-009-9226-8. Epub 2009 Sep 30.
Neurite outgrowth and neuronal differentiation play a crucial role in the development of the nervous system. Understanding of neurotrophins induced neurite outgrowth was important to develop therapeutic strategy for axon regeneration in neurodegenerative diseases as well as after various nerve injuries. It has been reported that extension of neurite and differentiation of sympathetic neuron-like phenotype was modulated by nerve growth factor (NGF) in PC12 cells. In this study, NGF mediated neurite outgrowth was investigated in PC12 cells after liquiritin exposure. Liquiritin is a kind of flavonoids that is extracted from Glycyrrhizae radix, which is frequently used to treat injury or swelling for its life-enhancing properties as well as detoxification in traditional Oriental medicine. The result showed that liquiritin significantly promotes the neurite outgrowth stimulated by NGF in PC12 cells in dose dependant manners whereas the liquiritin alone did not induce neurite outgrowth. Oligo microarray and RT-PCR analysis further clarified that the neurotrophic effect of liquiritin was related to the overexpression of neural related genes such as neurogenin 3, neurofibromatosis 1, notch gene homolog 2, neuromedin U receptor 2 and neurotrophin 5. Thus, liquiritin may be a good candidate for treatment of various neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease.
神经突生长和神经元分化在神经系统发育中起着至关重要的作用。了解神经营养因子诱导的神经突生长对于开发神经退行性疾病以及各种神经损伤后的轴突再生治疗策略非常重要。据报道，神经生长因子（NGF）在 PC12 细胞中调节神经突的延伸和交感神经元样表型的分化。在这项研究中，研究了甘草素暴露后 PC12 细胞中 NGF 介导的神经突生长。甘草素是从甘草根中提取的一种类黄酮，由于其具有增强生命和解毒的特性，常用于治疗损伤或肿胀，在传统东方医学中被广泛应用。结果表明，甘草素以剂量依赖的方式显著促进 NGF 刺激的 PC12 细胞的神经突生长，而单独的甘草素本身不会诱导神经突生长。寡核苷酸微阵列和 RT-PCR 分析进一步阐明，甘草素的神经营养作用与神经相关基因的过表达有关，如神经基因 3、神经纤维瘤病 1、同源 2 基因、神经调节素 U 受体 2 和神经营养因子 5。因此，甘草素可能是治疗各种神经退行性疾病（如阿尔茨海默病或帕金森病）的候选药物。
