Institute of Neuroscience, Kunming Medical University, Yunnan Kunming, China.
Second Department of General Surgery, First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, Yunnan Kunming, China.
CNS Neurol Disord Drug Targets. 2018;17(7):547-556. doi: 10.2174/1871527317666180711093538.
BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: Notoginsenoside R1 (NGR1) is one of the main effective components of Panax notoginseng.
Primary cortical neurons were harvested from neonatal rats and cultured to analyze the role of NGR1 in neuronal growth and the effects of NGR1 on the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Following treatment with NGR1, immunocytochemistry was used to detect expression of Tuj1 and MAP2, and RT-qPCR was used to measure mRNA levels of key factors in the Wnt signaling pathway.
Results showed that NGR1 promotes growth of cultured neurons and significantly upregulates mRNA levels of β-catenin, Dishevelled, and Frizzled. To further confirm whether NGR1 promoted cortical neuron growth via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, we knocked down β- catenin mRNA by siRNA interference; following NGR1 treatment of β-catenin-knockdown neurons, β-catenin mRNA levels increased significantly.
In conclusion, these results demonstrate that NGR1 promotes growth of cultured cortical neurons from the neonatal rat, possibly via the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
三七总皂苷 R1（NGR1）是三七的主要有效成分之一。
从新生大鼠中分离原代皮质神经元进行培养，分析 NGR1 在神经元生长中的作用及其对 Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路的影响。用 NGR1 处理后，通过免疫细胞化学检测 Tuj1 和 MAP2 的表达，通过 RT-qPCR 测量 Wnt 信号通路关键因子的 mRNA 水平。
结果表明，NGR1 促进培养神经元的生长，并显著上调 β-catenin、Dishevelled 和 Frizzled 的 mRNA 水平。为了进一步证实 NGR1 是否通过 Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路促进皮质神经元的生长，我们用 siRNA 干扰使 β-catenin mRNA 下调；用 NGR1 处理β-catenin 敲低神经元后，β-catenin mRNA 水平显著增加。
总之，这些结果表明 NGR1 可能通过 Wnt/β-catenin 信号通路促进新生大鼠皮质神经元的生长。
