Abstract: AIM: To investigate the prevention ef-fects of sodium ferulate (SF) on lens epithelial cells (LEC) damaged by oxidative stress, and to study the changes of intracellular-free calcium, cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanine monophos-phate (cGMP). METHODS: Bovine LEC were primarily cultured and sub-cultured, and used for experiment in generation 3.LEC were incubatedwith hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). SF 25, 50, and 100 mg°L^-1 were added into the LEC damaged by oxidative stress and incubated for 12, 24 and 36 hours, respectively. The LEC activities were observed by 3-(4, 5-dimethy-thiazol-2-yl)-2, 5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide(MTT) assay. Intracellular-free calcium content of LEC was detected by spectrofluo-rophotometer using Fura-2/AM as an indicator.Intracel-lular cAMP and cGMP concentrations of LEC were deter-mined by radioimmunoassay (RIA). RESULTS: The ab-sorbance values (A values) in LEC of H₂O₂ groupsobvi-ously reduced compare with that in the control group(P< 0.01). The activities of LEC treated with SF obvious dose-dependent and time-dependent increased.The intra-cellular-free calcium contents of LEC in H₂O₂ group by spectrofluorophotometer increased compared with that in the control group (P<0.01). However, it obvious time-dependent decreased in SF groups (P<0.01). The cAMP concentration of LEC increased and the cGMP con-centration of LEC decreased in H₂O₂ group by radioim-munoassay compared with that in the control group (P< 0.01). The cAMP concentration of LEC decreased and the cGMP concentration of LEC obvious time-dependent increased in SF groups (P<0.01). CONCLUSION: SF can protect LEC from oxidative damages and inhibit apoptosis of LEC.The mechanisms of preventing and de-laying cataract formation by four anti-apoptosis drugs may be related to the cross-talk among calcium signal trans-duction system, cAMP signal transduction system and cGMP signal transduction system.

Key words: sodium ferulate, lens epithelial cell, intracellular-free calcium, cAMP, cGMP