Toshiaki Kume (1), Hanae Kohchiyama (1), Hiroyuki Nishikawa (1), Takehiko Maeda (1), Shuji Kaneko (1), Akinori Akaike (1,*), Naoki Noda (2) and Tetsuro Fujita (3)
(1) Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-01, Japan
(2) Department of Chemistry of Natural Products and (3) Department of Pharmaceutical
Manufacturing Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Setsunan University,
Hirakata 573-01, Japan
(*) To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract: The effects of an ether extract of fetal calf serum (EE-FCS) on glutamate-induced cytotoxicity were examined using primary cultures of rat cortical neurons. The simultaneous addition of EE-FCS and glutamate reduced glutamate cytotoxicity in a concentration-dependent manner. EE-FCS also reduced the cytotoxicity induced by S-nitrosocysteine, a nitric oxide (NO) donor. The findings indicate that EE-FCS contains lipid-soluble, non-peptide substances with neuroprotective actions against NO-mediated glutamate neurotoxicity.
Keywords: Fetal calf serum, Glutamate, Nitric oxide