Neuroscience Letters 2002-06-07

Protective effect of ginsenosides, active ingredients of Panax ginseng, on kainic acid-induced neurotoxicity in rat hippocampus.

Jong-Hwan Lee, Se-Ra Kim, Chun-Sik Bae, Donghou Kim, Hea- Nam Hong, Seung- Yeol Nah

Index: Neurosci. Lett. 325(2) , 129-33, (2002)

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Abstract

Ginsenosides are known to attenuate glutamate-induced cell injuries in vitro. We investigated the in vivo effect of ginsenosides on kainic acid (KA)-induced neurotoxicity in rat hippocampus using the methods of acid fuchsin (AF) staining and heat-shock protein-70 (HSP-70) immunoreactivity to detect neuronal death and stress, respectively. Pretreatment of ginsenosides (50 or 100 mg/kg for 7 days) via intraperitoneal (i.p.) administration significantly attenuated KA (10 mg/kg i.p.)-induced cell death by decreasing AF-positive neurons in both CA1 and CA3 regions of rat hippocampus compared with KA treatment alone. Pretreatment of ginsenosides (50 or 100 mg/kg for 7 days) via i.p. administration also significantly suppressed KA-induced induction of HSP-70 in both regions of rat hippocampus. These results show that ginsenosides are effective in protecting hippocampal CA1 and CA3 cells against KA-induced neurotoxicity.