Abstract: AIM: To investigate the protective effects of tanshinone on the brain slices injury induced by oxygen glucose deprivation(OGD). METHODS: Rat brain slices were made and randomly assigned to four groups (n = 10 in each): control group, OGD group, tanshinone 20 mg ·L^-1 group and tanshinone 200 mg·L^-1 group. Changes of the neuron injury and apoptosis were observed with TTC staining, LDH releases, TUNEL staining, immunohistochemistry and electromicroscope. In addition, changes of intracellular calcium were measured by confocal laser-scanning microscopy. RESULTS: Tanshinone 20 mg·L^-1 and 200 mg·L^-1 attenuated the decrease of TTC staining and the increase of LDH release induced by OGD in brain slices. Neuronal apoptosis and changes of neuronal ultrastructures were attenuated by different concentrations of tanshinone. Bcl-2 and Bax protein expression was increased after OGD. Bax protein expression was decreased by different concentrations of tanshinone, while Bcl-2 protein expression was increased by different concentrations of tanshinone. Intracellular calcium concentration was increased by OGD and then it was lowered by different concentrations of tanshinone. The protective effects of 200 mg·L^-1 tanshinone were more obvious better than those in the 20 mg·L^-1 tanshinone group. CONCLUSION: Different concentrations of tanshinone have neuronprotective effects against OGD injury in rat brain slices, and 200 mg·L^-1 tanshinone shows more obvious protective effects than those in the 20 mg·L^-1 tanshinone.

Key words: tanshinone, brain slices, apoptosis, intracellular calcium, oxygen glucose deprivation