Fig. 3.
Effect of Rosmarinus officinalis essential oil (ROEO) on the PC12 cells neuronal outgrowth elongation.PC12 cells were seeded onto 96-well plates at a density of 1×105 cells/ml. After overnight incubation, PC12 cells were treated with 50 ng/ml of nerve growth factor (NGF) or 10 μg/ml of ROEO for 48 h. Control cells were incubated for 48 h without NGF or ROEO treatment. a Expression of growth associated protein 43 (Gap43) mRNA quantified using real-time PCR and normalized to Gapdh mRNA expression. Data represent the mean of three independent trials ±.SD *P≤0.05, **P≤0.01 vs. control. b Morphology of PC12 cells treated without (Control) or with 50 ng/ml NGF (NGF) or 10 μg/ml of ROEO (ROEO). The photographs were taken 48 h after sample treatment and arrows point to cells with dendritic morphology. Photographs of the cells at 200× magnification were taken using a phase contrast microscope equipped with DFC 290HD camera (Leica Microsystem). The scale-bar represents 50 μm