Icariin Attenuates OGDR-Induced Autophagy via Bcl-2-Dependent Cross Talk between Apoptosis and Autophagy in PC12 Cells

Abstract EN

Icariin (ICA), an active component of Epimedium brevicornum Maxim, exerts a variety of neuroprotective effects such as antiapoptosis.

However, the mechanisms underlying antiapoptosis of ICA in neurons exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation and reperfusion (OGD/R) are unclear.

The B-cell lymphoma-2 (Bcl-2) protein family plays an important role in the regulation of apoptosis and autophagy through Bcl-2-dependent cross talk.

Bcl-2 suppresses apoptosis by binding to Bax and inhibits autophagy by binding to Beclin-1 which is an autophagy related protein.

In the present study, MTT result showed that ICA increased cell viability significantly in OGD/R treated PC12 cells ( P < 0.01 ).

Results of western blotting analysis showed that ICA increased Bcl-2 expression significantly and decreased expressions of Bax, cleaved Caspase-3, Beclin-1, and LC3-II significantly in OGD/R treated PC12 cells ( P < 0.01 ).

These results suggest that ICA protects PC12 cells from OGD/R induced autophagy via Bcl-2-dependent cross talk between apoptosis and autophagy.