Protective Effects of Tacrine Against Staurosporine-Induced Apoptotic Death in NG 108-15 Cells

AIM To study whether tacrine could prevent cell apoptosis induced by staurosporine in NG108 15 cells. METHODS Cell damage was measured by the percentage of LDH release. To confirm the morphological change, we further examined cells under phase contrast and fluorescence microscope using a chromatin dye, Hoechst 33342. In order to analyse protein levels of anti apoptotic Bcl 2 and proapoptotic Bax, we made SDS PAGE and Western blot. RESULTS NG108 15 cells exposed to 0.1 μmol/L staurosporine for 24 h produced substantial LDH release into the medium. Pretreatment of the cells with 0.1 mmol/L tacrine for 2 h during staurosporine incubation significantly decreased the LDH release from 45% to 32% ( P 0.01). Pretreatment with tacrine significantly delayed and decreased the staurosporine induced upregulation of Bax protein expression, and increased Bcl 2 protein expression after NG108 15 induced by staurosporine at 12~24 h. CONCLUSION Pretreatment with tacrine had significant protective effects on staurosporine induced apoptotic damage. The neuroprotective effect of tacrine seems to be through inhibiting or delaying Bax expression and increasing Bcl 2 expression.