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Molecular evidence of the neuroprotective effect of Ginkgo biloba (EGb761) using bax/bcl-2 ratio after brain ischemia in senescence-accelerated mice, strain prone-8.

Lu G, Wu Y, Mak YT, Wai SM, Feng ZT, Rudd JA, Yew DT

Department of Neurosurgery, KunMing Medical College, KunMing, China; Department of Anatomy, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong, China.

In the present studies, we investigated the molecular mechanism of one of the active ingredients of Ginkgo biloba, EGb761, to affect the levels of several apoptotic markers in six brain regions following global ischemia in senescence-accelerated mice. A 4-day treatment with EGb761 significantly decreased bax/bcl-2 ratios in all brain regions in both young and aged mice. Our findings indicate that the bax/bcl-2 ratio provides a suitable index of apoptosis and modulation of these markers may explain the neuroprotective action of EGb761.

Published 12 June 2006 in Brain Res, 1090(1): 23-8.
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