Figure 5.

Effect of HN on NMDA-induced mitochondrial membrane potential reduction.

Notes: (A) Visualization of mitochondrial membrane potential in cortical neurons under a laser confocal scanning microscope (×400). Primarily cultured cortical neurons (1×10⁶) were stained by JC-1 on 9th day in vitro. (B) Changes of mitochondrial membrane potential in cortical neurons treated with NMDA with or without HN. Data are the mean ± SD of 5 independent experiments. Data were analyzed by 1-way ANOVA followed by post hoc Tukey’s test for multiple comparisons. ^#Control group versus NMDA group, P=0.002; *NMDA group versus NMDA + MK-801 group, P=0.026; **NMDA group versus NMDA + HN group, P=0.000. NMDA: 100 μmol/L; MK-801: 10 μmol/L and HN: 1 μmol/L. NMDA is an excitotoxin that induces the overactivation of the NMDA receptor, causing excitotoxicity. MK-801 is a known uncompetitive antagonist of NMDA receptor, which could block the binding of NMDA.

Abbreviations: ANOVA, analysis of variance; HN, humanin; NMDA, N-methyl-D-aspartate; SD, standard deviation.