Abstract: Dopaminergic neurons injury is a key pathogenic factor at the onset of Parkinson’s disease.To investigate the protective effect and possible mechanisms of rosemarinic acid (RA) on MPTP induced dopaminergic neurons injury,dopaminergic neurons were pretreated with rosemarinic acid for 30 min prior to MPTP treatment,neuron viability,ROS lever,caspase-3 lever and cleaved caspase-3 level were measured.Results showed that MPTP induced dopaminergic neuron viability decreased (P<0.05),ROS level and cleaved caspase-3 level increased (P<0.01).Moreover,the application of RA (40 μmol/L and 20 μmol/L) can effectively reverse MPTP induced dopaminergic neuron viability decrease,ROS level and cleaved caspase-3 level increase (P<0.05,P<0.01).These results indicated that rosemarinic acid can protect MPTP induced dopaminergic neuron toxicity possibly through decreasing aberrant elevation of ROS and reverse abnormal aspase-3 activity.

Key words: rosemarinic acid, MPTP, ROS, Caspase-3, Parkinson’s disease