Abstract
BackgroundThe embryos of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn seeds, lianzixin, are used in China as food and traditional herbal medicine. Principal therapeutic indications are insomnia, anxiety and pyrexia. Caffeine is a psychostimulant and excessive use predisposes to cell damage and neurotoxicity. We aimed to investigate the potential protect effect of Neferine and lianzixin extracts on undifferentiated caffeine-damaged phaeochromocytoma cells (PC12 cells).MethodsA cell damage model based on undifferentiated PC12 was established with caffeine. Effect of Lianzixin extracts (total alkaloids, alcohol extract and water extract) and neferine on caffeine-damaged PC12 cells was evaluated. Cell viability was assessed using the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) assay, cellular morphology by inverted microscope, the nucleus by Hoechst 33342 staining and cleaved poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) expression by western blot analysis.ResultsLianzixin extracts (total alkaloids, alcohol extract and water extract) and neferine improved the viability of PC12 cells damaged by caffeine. The morphology of PC12 cells pretreated with neferine, or alcohol or water extract of lianzixin aggregated and attached better than caffeine-damaged cells, but cells pretreated with total alkaloids of lianzixin showed abnormal morphology. Compared with caffeine-damaged cells, cells pretreated with neferine, or alcohol or water extract of lianzixin showed a notable increase in nucleus staining and an obvious decrease in cleaved PARP expression.ConclusionsLianzixin extracts and neferine have protective effects against caffeine-induced damage in PC12 cells, which laid a foundation for finding a new medicine value of Lianzixin.
Highlights
The embryos of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn seeds, lianzixin, are used in China as food and traditional herbal medicine
Cell culture Phaeochromocytoma cells (PC12) cell is a phaeochromocytoma cell line obtained from rat adrenal glands, it was obtained from Cell Bank of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai, China) in the present study and the passage number of PC12 cell was 10
Pretreatment with various extracts of lianzixin such as neferine (1.88 mg/ mL, P < 0.05 and 6.25 mg/mL, P < 0.01), total alkaloids of lianzixin (1 mg/mL and 3 mg/mL, P < 0.01), alcohol extracts (3 mg/mL, P < 0.01) and water extracts (3 mg/mL, P < 0.01) dose-dependently inhibited the decrease in cell viability induced by caffeine
Summary
The embryos of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn seeds, lianzixin, are used in China as food and traditional herbal medicine. Caffeine is a well-known xanthine alkaloid and it is one of the most commonly ingested psychoactive substances in the world [1] It is available in a variety of dietary sources including coffee, tea, cocoa and soft drinks. All parts of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn including the rhizomes, leaves, flowers and seeds can be eaten for their nutritional value and utilized in herbal medicine [12, 13]. Lianzixin is the embryo of the mature Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn seed It is a traditional food and herbal medicine with several nutritional and medicinal value to be found. Since high dose caffeine intake lead to anxiety and insomnia, we speculate that lianzixin or its extracts may possess protective effects against caffeine-induced cellular damage
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