International Journal of Medical Laboratory

Background and Aims:In neurodegenerative disorders,oxidative stress mediated by reactive oxygen species is strongly associated with increased neuronal damages which can lead to apoptosis. Pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic gene expressions are changed during the cell differentiation that affect cell viability and differentiation. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effects of hydrogen peroxide-induced oxidative stress on the apoptotic cell death in the differentiated rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells.

Materials and Methods:Semi-differentiated PC12 cells were treated with 400 µM hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Characteristic morphological changes as apoptotic index were evaluated by DAPI staining. MTT assay were applied in order to evaluate the cells survival as well as cell activity.Pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic gene expressions were estimated by real time-PCR.

Results:The obtained data indicated that PC12 cell survival rate decreased H2O2 treated condition during the differentiation. Moreover, H2O2 was proved to increase apoptotic genes expressions including caspase-6 as well as PIN1 and to decrease anti-apoptotic genes including SIRT1 as well as SIRT7.

Conclusions: The findings of the present study revealed that H2O2-induced oxidative stress can retard the differentiation of PC12 cell in the form of neural-like cells through the apoptotic gene expression. On the other hand, although the PIN1 acts as an apoptotic gene, this study illustrated that this gene expression can get increased during the differentiation under oxidative stress conditions