ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Salvianolic acid B can ease nerve injury and promote neurogenesis, but its effects on proliferation,apoptosis and differentiation of neural stem cells in the hippocampus remain unclear.OBJECTIVE: To study the effects of salvianolic acid B on proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation of rat hippocampal neural stem cells following oxygen-glucose deprivation.METHODS: Hippocampal neural stem cells were isolated from newborn Sprague-Dawley rats, and divided into six groups, five of which were cultured in an incubator containing anaerobic mixtures (1% O2, 5% CO2 and 94% N2) for 150minutes followed by treatment with different concentrations of salvianolic acid B (0, 5, 10, 20, 40 mg/L), respectively.After 4 days of intervention, MTT was used to detect cell proliferation. After 48 hours of intervention, flow cytometry was used to detect cell apoptosis in the hippocampus. After 5 days of culture, flow cytometry was performed to evaluate the percentage of cells positive for neuron-specific enolase and glial fibrillary acidic protein. Normally cultured cells acted as controls (normoxic group).RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Compared with the normoxic group, the proliferation of neural stem cells was decreased significantly (P < 0.01) and the rate of apoptosis was increased in the oxygen-glucose deprivation group (P <0.01). After treatment with different concentrations of salvianolic acid B, the cell viability and the ratio of neurons in total cells were increased, and the ratio of astrocytes was decreased, especially in 20 and 40 mg/L groups (P < 0.01). In conclusion, these results suggest that salvianolic acid B alleviates adverse effects of oxygen-glucose deprivation on neural stem cell proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis.