The protective effects of apigenin on OLN-93 cellular model of cerebral stroke

Cerebral stroke is known to be the third most common cause of death in the world. To study pathophysiology and effects of the therapeutic agents on stroke, the cellular model of stroke recently was used more. ONL-93, oligodendrocyte like cell, is known as an appropriate model to study the role of glial cells in stroke. Apigenin is a flavonoid that has neuroprotective and neurogenic effects; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of apigenin flavonoid on the OLN-93 cell line in terms of oxygen and glucose deprivation in the cellular stroke model.

The cells were divided into experimental, negative and positive control groups. Then, MTT, reactive oxygen species (ROS), annexin and propidium iodide as well as Western blotting assays were performed to evaluate the viability and apoptosis.

The results showed that there was a significant increase in the number of live cells following administration of 1μM of apigenin in experimental groups and also, there was a significant difference in the number of live cells between two doses of 1μM and 0.75μM of the apigenin. The amount of ROS produced at a concentration of 1μM apigenin was a significant decrease compared to the positive control group and apoptotic cells also decreased significantly. The results for the expression of P53 protein showed a significant reduction in experimental groups.

Based on our results, apigenin could have beneficial effects through the reduction of P53 and ROS production.