Simvastatin Prevents Dopaminergic Neurodegeneration in Experimental Parkinsonian Models: The Association with Anti-Inflammatory Responses (original) (raw)
Figure 4
Simvastatin protected PC12 cells against 6-OHDA neurotoxicity.
The MTT value in the 6-OHDA treated group was significantly reduced as compared with controls (***p<0.001, 6-OHDA vs controls, n = 9; Fig. 4A), but simvastatin upregulated this reduction (†††p<0.001, 6-OHDA vs 6-OHDA+sim, n = 9; Fig. 4A). Intact nuclei (blue Hoechst 33342 staining) and condensed/fragmented nuclei (bright blue Hoechst 33342 staining) were considered to be live and apoptotic cells, respectively (Fig. 4B, C, D). The exposure of the PC12 cultures to 6-OHDA (100 uM, 24 h) significantly increased the number of apoptotic cells by 4.75 times compared with controls (***p<0.001, 6-OHDA vs controls; Fig. 4E); however, simvastatin incubation significantly reduced this increase in the number of apoptotic cells (†††p<0.001, 6-OHDA vs 6-OHDA+sim; Fig. 4E; Bar = 100 µm). Apoptotic cells were further verified by flow cytometry analysis. The result showed that 6-OHDA induced profound apoptosis (4.59±0.9% vs 14.97±1.25%, controls vs 6-OHDA, p<0.01, n = 5; Fig. 4F and 6G) but simvastatin incubation attenuated this apoptotic death (14.97±1.25% vs 6.09±0.64%, 6-OHDA vs 6-OHDA+sim, p<0.01, n = 5; Fig. 4G and 4H). All the results are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean.