The influence of culture time on apoptosis of rat cortical neurons induced by oxygen and glucose deprivation

Objective To investigate the effect of culture time on the apoptosis of fetal rat cortical neurons induced by oxygen and glucose deprivation(OGD).Methods The cortical neurons separated form 18-day fetus rat were cultured for 6 days,8 days and 12 days to get immature,grown and aged neurons respectively.OGD,only in the test groups,was induced by oxygen deprivation for 2 hours after the culture medium was displaced with glucose free medium to continue the culture for 24 hours.The apoptosis was then evaluated after DAPI staining method was used to illustrate the neuronal changes.Results The elevated rate of neuronal apoptosis was higher in the 12-day group than in the 8-day group(P0.05).No significant differences in apoptosis response to OGD insult were found between the 6-day cultures,with and without OGD(P0.05).Conclusion The reaction to OGD insult varies with the maturity of the cultured cortical neurons.The immature neurons are insensitive and tolerant to lack of oxygen,and the sensitivity increases with the age of neurons.