Purpose: The present study was designed to investigate the effect of hydrostatic pressure on cell viability, apoptosis induction, morphology and cell-substrate interactions of pc12 cells.Materials and Methods: pc12 as a neuronal cell line maintained in RPMI 1640 culture medium supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum. pc12 cells were subjected to hydrostatic pressure. Experimental pressure condition was 100mmHg set above atmospheric pressure for 2 h. Controls were treated identically except for the application of pressure. Dye exclusion was used for viability assay, TUNEL staining was used for apoptosis detection. Cell area was assessed as morphometry and then cell adhesion, extension and migration were investigated. Results: Hydrostatic pressure had not changed viability of cells. It induced apoptosis in pc12 cells. In addition, hydrostatic pressure reduced cell area, adhesion, extension and migration ability of these cells (P<0.05). Conclusion: Hydrostatic pressure may induce apoptosis in pc12 cells as a result of inappropriate cell to substrate adhesion. Thus it is suggest that occurring apoptosis in these cells be an anoikis cell death induced by loss of attachment to the substrate.

Background and purpose: Linalool is one of the main constituents of the essential oil of some aromatic plants, including Lavandula angustifolia. It is used in cosmetics and pharmaceutical industry. In this study, the cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of (±, ) linalool and its naturally occurring enantiomer, (R)-(-) linalool, were evaluated in neuronal pc12 cells. Materials and methods: pc12 cells were incubated with different concentrations of racemate linalool and (R)-(-) linalool for 12 and 24 h. Cytotoxicvity and genotoxicity were evaluated using MTT assay and single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay, respectively. Results: Findings showed that (±, ) linalool and (R)-(-) linalool (3200 μ, M) significantly reduced cell viability to 76. 2% and 92%, compared to the control group (untreated cells) (P<0. 001). IC50 values after 12 h and 24 h exposure to (±, ) linalool and (R)-(-) linalool were 2700 µ, M and 5440 µ, M, and 2600 µ, M and 3040 µ, M, respectively. Following treatment by (±, ) linalool or (R)-(-) linalool for 12 or 24 h, the DNA contents in the comets tail, as an indicator of genotoxicity, significantly increased to 21. 36 ±,3. 1%, 27. 6 ±,2. 3% and 15. 2 ±,1. 6% and 21. 3 ±,2%, respectively (P<0. 001). Conclusion: In this study, racemate linalool and its enantiomer, (R)-(-) linalool, decreased the viability of pc12 cells via induction of genotoxicity. (R)-(-) linalool exhibited more cytotoxicity than (±, ) linalool.

The protective effect of an L-type calcium channel blocker, nimodipine, on cell injury induced by oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD) in pc12 cells was investigated. pc12 cells were exposed to oxygen-glucose deprivation (30 minutes and 60 minutes respectively) in the presence or absence of nimodipine (10mM/L) in three different time schedules (pre-24h, pre-3h and concurrently). Cellular viability was assessed by MTT assay. OGD-induced cell injury was significantly attenuated by nimodipine in all three treatment schedules. Application of MK801 (10mM/L), an antagonist of NMDA glutamate receptors also inhibited pc12 cell death induced by OGD. Our study suggests that nimodipine has protective effects against OGD-induced neurotoxicity.

Background: The rat pheochromocytoma cell line, (pc12) will differentiate through in vitro condition by some factors such as nerve growth factor (NGF) and convert into neuron-like cells. Bee venom (BV) contain different components such as phospholipase 2 (PLA2) which has differentiational effect on pc12 cells by itself but the effect of BV as a whole biological product has not been well known, So, in this study, the effects of bee venum on differentiation of pc12 was studied.Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, the pc12 cells were seeded in the culture medium (RPMI-1640) at 5×103 cell/well in poly-D-lysine (0.05 mg/ml) coated 24-well culture plates, and were treated with NGF with the concentration of 50 ng/ml and the bee venom with the concentrations of 1 µg/ml and 3 µg/ml. The viability of pc12 cells were analyzed by using MTT assay, and cell differentiation were surveyed morphologically and the neurite outgrowth were measured and the neuronal like cells were confirmed by enzymatically method (AChE activity assay).Results: The results confirmed the differentiotional effect of BV at the low dosage and this effect was increased when the BV and NGF were used together. We conclude that BV and NGF may use in cell therapy to induce differentiation of undifferentiated cells.Conclusion: This study showed that BV at the low dosage lead to cell death and at the high dosage convert pc12 cells to neuronal- like cells.Concurrent use of BV and NGF may use in cell therapy to induce differentiation of undifferentiated cells.