Shandong Academy of Chinese Medicine, China.
Folia Neuropathol. 2012;50(3):270-6. doi: 10.5114/fn.2012.30527.
Paeoniflorin (PF), a monoterpene glycoside isolated from the aqueous extract of Radix Paeoniae Alba, is widely used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD). In this study, we investigated the protective mechanism of PF on glutamate-induced neurotoxicity in cultured rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells. PC12 cells were cultured in vitro, cell viability was assessed by MTT assay, cell apoptosis as well as mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were detected by flow cytometric analysis and the expression profiles of apoptosis-related proteins including Bcl-2 and Bax were investigated by western blot. The results showed that PF could protect PC12 cells against glutamate-induced injury in a concentration-dependent manner and the mechanism of neuroprotective effect of PF was closely associated with up-regulation of Bcl-2 and down-regulation of Bax. It demonstrated that PF has neuroprotective effect on glutamate-induced apoptosis in PC12 cells via regulating mitochondrial membrane potential and Bcl-2/ Bax signal pathway.
芍药苷（PF）是从白芍水提物中分离得到的一种单萜糖苷，广泛应用于治疗阿尔茨海默病（AD）和帕金森病（PD）等神经退行性疾病的中药（TCM）中。在这项研究中，我们研究了 PF 对谷氨酸诱导的培养大鼠嗜铬细胞瘤（PC12）细胞毒性的保护机制。将 PC12 细胞在体外培养，通过 MTT 法评估细胞活力，通过流式细胞术分析检测细胞凋亡和线粒体膜电位（MMP），通过 Western blot 研究凋亡相关蛋白 Bcl-2 和 Bax 的表达谱。结果表明，PF 能够以浓度依赖的方式保护 PC12 细胞免受谷氨酸诱导的损伤，PF 的神经保护作用机制与上调 Bcl-2 和下调 Bax密切相关。研究表明，PF 通过调节线粒体膜电位和 Bcl-2/Bax 信号通路对谷氨酸诱导的 PC12 细胞凋亡具有神经保护作用。
