Figure 3.

The protective effect of resveratrol against rotenone-induced mitochondrial fission and fusion in SD rats and PC12 cells. (a, b) The fluorescence intensity indicating mitochondrial mass was calculated and analyzed. The results show that rotenone induced a reduction in mitochondrial mass and an increase in the number of fragmented mitochondria with small ring-shapes compared with that in the control group. However, the decrease in mitochondrial mass and mitochondrial fragmentation is improved by resveratrol pretreatment of PC12 cells prior to rotenone exposure. (c) The number of fragmented cells is significantly increased in R group compared with that in control group. Resveratrol pretreatment significantly reduced the number of fragmented cells compared with R group. (d, e) In the in vivo model, the quantification analysis of Drp1. Fis1, OPA1, and MFN2 protein and mRNA levels involved in mitochondrial fission and fusion reveals a significant decrease in the R groups compared with the control group and an increase in the RSV-pretreated groups exposed to rotenone, showing resveratrol's protective effect in rotenone-induced neurotoxicity. (f, g) Protein and mRNA levels are reduced significantly following rotenone exposure in vitro, and resveratrol significantly increased expression compared to the control group. Representative immunoblots of proteins and electrophoretic bands of genes associated with mitochondrial fission and fusion. β-actin served as the internal control to normalize the amount of protein and mRNA. The results are presented as the mean ± S.E.M. The values were generated from three independent experiments. ^∗ P < 0.05 versus control group; ^∗∗ P < 0.01 versus control group; ^# P < 0.05 versus R group; ^## P < 0.01 versus R group.