Figure 3.

Comparison of morphology and quantitative changes in PC-12 cells a. Morphology comparison of PC-12 cells with or without ginsenoside and/or NGF treatment. (A) Control; (B) 5 ng/ml NGF; (C) 20 μM Rh₁; (D) 20 μM Rh₁ + 5 ng/ml NGF; (E) 20 μM Rg₂; (F) 20 μM Rg₂ + 5 ng/ml NGF. Scale Bar: 50 mb. Quantitative changes in PC-12 cell morphology. The stacked bars illustrate the percentages of cells that do not possess neurites, possess short neurites only, or possess long neurites in each treatment group. At least 120 cells were counted for each treatment. Ginsenosides Rh₁ and Rg₂ (20 μM) both increased the percentage of cells possessing short or long neurites in the absence of NGF (Rh₁: 20.3%, 6.5%; Rg₂: 25.1%, 7.3%) compared to the control group (8.5%, 2.6%). In the presence of NGF (5 ng/ml) the effects of Rh₁ and Rg₂ were mostly enhanced, but were not greatly different from NGF treatment alone (Rh₁+NGF: 26.8%, 10.8%; Rg₂+NGF: 22.9%, 10.9%; NGF: 22.7%, 11.3%).