Lycium chinensis Mill attenuates glutamate induced oxidative toxicity in PC12 cells by increasing antioxidant defense enzymes and down regulating ROS and Ca(2+) generation.

Lycium chinensis Mill is a famous traditional Chinese medicine which displays several medicinal activities including antioxidant and neuroprotective activities. However, the mechanism of action towards the neuroprotective action has not been fully elucidated. This work was aimed at investigating the neuroprotective effects of L. chinensis Mill against glutamate-induced oxidative neurotoxicity in PC12 cells. Oxidative cell death was induced with 5mM glutamate in PC12 cells. Cell viability, LDH release, intracellular Ca(2+) concentration, reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation, GSH-Px, CAT and SOD antioxidant enzyme levels were measured. Our results indicated that pretreatment of PC12 cells with L. chinensis Mill extracts markedly attenuated the loss of cell viability, the release of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), Ca(2+) overload, ROS generation, and cell apoptosis induced by glutamate toxicity. Furthermore, L. chinensis Mill extracts also significantly increased the levels of innate antioxidant enzymes GSH-Px, SOD and CAT in glutamate-induced PC12 cells. Conclusively, our results provided substantial evidence that L. chinensis Mill protected PC12 cells against glutamate-induced cell death by attenuating ROS generation, Ca(2+) influx, and increased the antioxidant defense capacity of PC12 cells against oxidative stress damages, suggesting the possible potential of extracts from the plant as sources of bioactive molecules in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.