Protective effect of oyster extract on apoptosis of cerebral neural stem cells induced by hyperthermia

BACKGROUND: Previous results of our study show that oyster extract has some protective effects on apoptosis of the neuroepithelium in neural tube defects induced by hyperthermia in vivo. It remains unclear whether the extract also protects in vitro cultured neural stem cells. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the protective effect of oyster extract on apoptosis of cerebral neural stem cells induced by hyperthermia. METHODS: The cerebral neural stem cells of embryonic mice of 13 days were cultured in vitro. Nestin expression was detected by immunofluorescence method to identify neural stem cells. The neural stem cells of passage 3 were divided randomly into 4 groups: hyperthermia control group and oyster treated I, II, III groups (mass concentration 2.5, 5, 10 g/L oyster extract solution). In addition, culture solution control group (no cells), and culture solution+ oyster extract control group (no cells) were designed. All oyster extract groups and control groups were treated by hyperthermia over 39 °C. The survival rate an d the vitality of neural stem cells were detected by trypan blue staining and MTT assay. Western-blotting was employed to explore the expression of p53 in cerebral neural stem cells of each group. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: The survival rate and the value of MTT assay in oyster treated groups II and III were significantly greater than hyperthermia control group (P < 0.05), but the expression of p53 in oyster treated groups II and III were weaker than hyperthermia control group. Oyster extract plays an important protective role in the apoptosis of neural stem cells induced by hyperthermia.