Study On Antiaging Mechanisms Of Melatonin

Melatonin (MT, N-acetyl-5-methoxyltryptamine) is a neuro-endocrine hormone secreted mainly by the pineal gland. Within recent years, many investigators have studied the pineal gland and MT in the processes of both aging and age-related diseases. The interests are from the importance of MT in a number of biological functions and the fact that MT production in the organism is gradually lost throughout life. It has been reported that exogenously administering MT could prolong life, postpone aging, and reduce the incidences of age-related diseases. On the other hand, many data showed that MT is an important antioxidant and endogenous antiaging hormone. In this study, we detected the changes of neuronal autocoids in cerebral cortex and hippocampus using in vivo pharmacological methods and in vitro cell isolation and culture techniques, confirmed the antiaging effects of MT in various aspects including behavior, morphology, biochemistry, gene expression etc., in order to explore the correlation between the endogenous factors and brain aging, understand and elucidate the antiaging mechanisms of MT. 1 Effects of melatonin on free intracellular calcium in mouse brain cellsOlder mice (15 months) of either sex weighing 44.4 ± s 4.2g were randomly divided into the low dose treated, high dose treated, and the control groups. Cortical synaptosomes were isolated in sucrose gradient density centrifugation. The brain cells of newbown (1-3 d) Kunming micewere prepared. Fura-2-AM (a Ca²⁺ fluorescent indicator) 5 umol.L^-1 in Me₂SO pMSO)...