Astaxanthin Protects Primary Hippocampal Neurons against Noxious Effects of Aβ-Oligomers

Figure 1

Lack of toxicity of ATX (≤10 μM) to primary hippocampal cultures. Representative live/dead fluorescence images ((a)–(h)) of neuronal hippocampal cultures (13–15 DIV) incubated for 24 h in the presence of vehicle (a) or treated with 0.001 μM (b), 0.01 μM (c), 0.1 μM (d), 1 μM (e), 10 μM (f), and 100 μM (g) ATX. In (h), 250 μM H₂O₂ was used to induce cell death. Live and dead neurons were identified by green calcein and red DNA-bound ethidium fluorescence, respectively. Scale bar: 50 μm. (i) shows quantitative analysis of cell survival incubated with different concentrations of ATX (white bars) and under H₂O₂ stimulation (hatched bar). Results are expressed as percentages relative to the viability of the control, untreated cultures. Values correspond to mean ± SE of six independent experiments (, corresponding to cultures from 6 different animals; in all experiments, each condition was tested at least in triplicate), with different neuronal cultures. Control cultures exhibited 85% of cell viability on average. Statistically significant differences among experimental conditions were evaluated by one-way ANOVA followed by Bonferroni’s multiple comparison test ( and compared to control).

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