Curcumin,Quercetin,Huperzine A Protect NIH3T3 Cells Against UV Irradiation

Studies have shown that chronic repeated exposures to sunlight are epidemiologically shown to be the main cause of skin cancers, skin aging, erythema, photoaging, immune suppression. At the cellular level, UV radiation causes significant oxidative stress due to generation of reactive oxygen species such as singlet oxygen, hydroxyl radical, superoxide anion, and hydrogen peroxide, then, our study set up a damage model with NIH3T3 cells by exposure it to UV radiation; investigate the antioxidative effects of curcumin, quercetin and huperzine A against the damage produced by exposing to UV in the cells.For curcumin and quercetin, the vitality of cells was determined by MTT assay; the membrane potential (MMP) across the inter membrane of the mitochondrial and the ROS level in the cells were evaluated by the laser scanning confocal microscopy. The study find out that exposure cells to UV caused a marked increase in ROS, and a decrease in mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Pre-incubation of NIH3T3 cells with curcumin and quercetin decrease the intracellular accumulation of ROS, and these two antioxidants caused a marked increase of MMP in 3T3 cells, they can protect cells against UV irradiation, increase the cell viabilty.For huperzine A, we use MTT assay to examine the vitality of cells and LSCM to determine the MMP, intracellular ROS level, cell karyotype, caspase-3 protein expression and bcl-2 expression. We find out that huperzine A can decrease the UV induced intracellular accumulation of ROS, increase the MMP of cells, keep the cell karyotype integrity; inhibit the UV induced apoptosis by regulate protein caspase-3 and bcl-2 expression, increase the viability of cells.