Abstract

Astaxanthin is one of carotenoids, which has powerful antioxidant activity and is found in many human foods. We investigated whether astaxanthin would prevent H₂O₂-induced apoptotic cell death of H9c2 myoblast cells. To examine the protective effects of astaxanthin, cytotoxicity assay, flowcytometric analysis, and Western blot analyses were performed. Treatment of H₂O₂ was shown to induce apoptosis in a dose dependent manner and astaxanthin attenuated the caspase-3 dependent apoptotic cell death in H9c2 myoblast cells. In Western blot analyses for cytochrome c release, astaxanthin suppressed the release of cytochrome c. These results suggest that the antiapoptotic effect of astaxanthin is associated with caspase-3 inhibition and inhibition of cytochrome c release into the cytosol. (Korean J Str Res 2008;16:357∼362)

• Keywords: Astaxanthin, Apoptosis, H₂O₂, H9c2 cardiac myoblast cells;