Cytoprotective effects of lindenenyl acetate isolated from Lindera strychnifolia on mouse hippocampal HT22 cells

Oxidative injury contributes to neuronal degeneration in many central nervous system (CNS) diseases, such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy and ischemia. Inducible heme oxygenase (HO)-1 acts against oxidants that are thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of these diseases. Lindenenyl acetate, isolated by bioassay-guided fractionation of the MeOH extract of the roots of Lindera strychnifolia, showed potent neuroprotective effects on glutamate-induced neurotoxicity by inducing the expression of HO-1 and increasing the activity of HO in mouse hippocampal HT22 cells. Furthermore, lindenenyl acetate caused the nuclear accumulation of nuclear factor-E2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) and increased the promoter activity of antioxidant response elements (ARE) in mouse hippocampal HT22 cells. In addition, we found that treatment of the cells with extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) inhibitor (U0126) reduced lindenenyl acetate-induced HO-1 expression. Lindenenyl acetate also increased ERK phosphorylation. These results suggest that lindenenyl acetate increases cellular resistance to glutamate-induced oxidative injury in mouse hippocampal HT22 cells, presumably through the ERK pathway-Nrf2/ARE-dependent HO-1 expression. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.