24-Epibrassinolide, a Phytosterol from the Brassinosteroid Family, Protects Dopaminergic Cells against MPP+-Induced Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Toxicology Volume 2011, Article ID 392859, 13 pages doi:10.1155/2011/392859 Research Article 24-Epibrassinolide, a Phytosterol from the Brassinosteroid Family, Protects Dopaminergic Cells against MPP+-Induced Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis 1 ´ 1 1 1, 2 Julie Carange, Fanny Longpre, Benoit Daoust, and Maria-Grazia Martinoli 1 Department of Biochemistry, Neurosciences Research Group, Universit´e du Qu´ebec a` Trois-Rivi`eres, Trois-Rivi`eres, QC, Canada G9A 5H7 2 Neuroscience Research Unit, Centre de recherche, Universit´e Laval, Ste-Foy, QC, Canada G1V 4G2 Correspondence should be addressed to Maria-Grazia Martinoli, maria-grazia.martinoli@uqtr.ca Received 15 December 2010; Revised 7 March 2011; Accepted 28 March 2011 Academic Editor: William Valentine Copyright © 2011 Julie Carange et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Oxidative stress and apoptosis are frequently cited to explain neuronal cell damage in various neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’ s disease. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are phytosterols recognized to promote stress tolerance of vegetables via modulation of the antioxidative enzyme cascade. However, their antioxidative effects on mammalian neuronal cells have never been examined so far. We analyzed the ability of 24-epibrassinolide (24-Epi), a natural BR, to protect neuronal PC12 cells from 1-methyl-4-phenylpyridinium- (MPP+ -) induced oxidative stress and consequent apoptosis i