Protective Effects of Ganoderan on Apoptosis of Cultured Hippocampus Neurons Induced by Aβ_(1-40)

To study the protective effects of ganoderan on apoptosis of cultured hippocampus neurons induced by Aβ1-40,and to explore the possible mechanism,neurotoxicity was measured by MTT assay among the cultured hippocampus neurons treated with Aβ1-40 and different concentrations of ganoderan.The concentration which ganoderan protected the neurons from injuring by Aβ1-40,was determined.Apoptosis was manifested by HO33342 staining,and the expression levels of bcl-2,bax and caspase-3 were analyzed by RT-PCR.Results showed that significant neurotoxicity of neurons was observed after incubating with 10μmol/L Aβ1-40 for 48h.Excessive apoptosis was observed among the neurons under the same condition,such as down regulation of bcl-2 expression and up regulation of bax expression.The apoptotic index(bcl-2/bax)was reduced,which enhanced the expression of caspase-3.Combination of ganoderan with Aβ1-40 partially changed the down regulation of bcl-2 expression.The ratio of bcl-2/bax was increased and the expression of caspase-3 was reduced.The neuron protection of ganoderan might be realized through blocking the apoptosis of hippocampus neurons induced by Aβ1-40,by modulating the ratio of bcl-2/bax and by reducing the expression of caspase-3.