The Effect of Low-Level Laser therapy and Curcumin on the Expression of LC3, ATG10 and BAX/BCL2 Ratio in PC12 Cells Induced by 6-Hydroxide Dopamine

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders. The neuroinflammation in the brain of PD patients is one of the critical processes in the immune pathogenesis of PD leading to the neural loss in the substantia nigra. Due to the anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin (CU) and low-level laser therapy (LLLT), we examined the protective effect of CU and LLLT on PC12 cells treated with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) as a Parkinson model.

PC12 cells were pretreated using various concentrations of 6-OHDA for 24 hours to induce oxidative and cellular damages. PC12-6-OHDA cells were co-treated with CU and LLLT. The effects of CU and LLLT on Bax/Bcl2 and LC3/ATG10 expression were analyzed by real-time PCR and cell viability was assessed by MTT assay. Cell A Software was used to calculate the length of the Neurite and cell body areas.

The results of this study show that the combination of CU dose-dependently and LLLT has a significant neuroprotective effect on cells and cellular death significantly decreases by increasing CU concentration. CU+LLLT decreases Bax/Bcl2 ratio which is an indicator of apoptosis and it also rescued a decrease in LC3 and ATG10 expression in comparison with 6-OHDA group.

This study shows that the combination of 5 μM CU and LLLT has the best neuroprotective effect on PC12 cells against 6-OHDA by decreasing the BAX/BCL2 ratio.