title: How do Chinese medicines that tonify the kidney inhibit dopaminergic neuron apoptosis?
abstract: Wistar rats were intragastrically perfused with Chinese medicines used for tonifying the kidney. These included 0.180 g/mL of Herba Epimedii (Epimedium), Semen Cuscutae (Dodder Seed), or Herba Cistanches (Desertliving Cistanche), 0.04 mg/mL monoamine oxidase-B inhibitor selegiline, or distilled water for 14 consecutive days to prepare drug-containing serum or blank serum. MES23.5 cells in the logarithmic phase were cultured in media supplemented with 15% drug-containing serum for 24 hours, followed by incubation in culture solution containing 100 μmol/L H2O2 for 3 hours. 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) and flow tometry results showed that all drug-containing serums improved the survival rate of H2O2-injured MES23.5 cells, inhibited pro-apoptotic FasL and caspase-3 expression, promoted anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 expression. However, drug-containing serums had little influence on Fas expression in H2O2-injured MES23.5 cells. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay results showed that serum containing Herba Cistanches or Herba Epimedii increased the expression of nerve growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, and glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor in injured MES23.5 cells; serum containing Semen Cuscutae only increased brain-derived neurotrophic factor expression; while expression of the above neurotrophic factors remained the same in cells treated with serum containing selegiline. These findings indicate that Chinese medicines used to tonify the kidney can protect nerve cells by regulating the expression of apoptosis-related factors and neuro-trophic factors in MES23.5 cells.
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Putian University, Putian 351100, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Shaogang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Shuifen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Hospital of Putian University, Putian 351100, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Jinmu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, Zhejiang Province, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Yihui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Mengqi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Jingxia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The Second People's Hospital of Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350003, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Songying
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Academy of Integrative Medicine, Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fuzhou 350122, Fujian Province, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cai
keywords: MES23.5 dopaminergic nerve cells; Parkinson's disease; apoptosis factors; drug-containing serum; neural regeneration; neuroprotection; neurotrophic factors; traditional Chinese medicine