Figure 1.

(A) Microscopic images of TUNEL-positive neurons (arrows) in the sections prepared from CA1 sub-region of hippocampus of different groups. TUNEL positive cells, as indicated by shrunk and brown nuclei, are scattered among normal neurons. (B) Comparison of the mean number of apoptotic neurons per unit area of CA1 sub-region in the control, PTZ-induced and pre-treatment groups (n=8). PTZ administration significantly increased the mean number of apoptotic neurons per unit area in comparison to the control group. However, only pre-treatment with 100 and 200 mg/kg of R. damascena extract led to significant decrease in the mean number of apoptotic neurons per unit area in comparison to PTZ-induced group. All data is presented as mean±SEM

**p<0.01 as compared to the control group; +p<0.05 as compared to the PTZ-induced group.