Botanical Drug Puerarin Promotes Neuronal Survival and Neurite Outgrowth against MPTP/MPP⁺-Induced Toxicity via Progesterone Receptor Signaling

Figure 2

Puerarin protected dopaminergic neurons from MPTP-induced damage in mice. (a) Immunohistochemical staining of TH expression. The frozen brain sections were analyzed by immunohistochemical staining with anti-TH antibody. The images were captured under an Olympus microscope (Tokyo, Japan). (b) Quantification for TH⁺ neurons. The number of TH⁺ neurons in each group () were counted. . (c) Western blot analysis of TH, PR-A, and PR-B expression. Midbrain tissues were collected and analyzed by Western blotting with antibodies against TH, PR-A, and PR-B, whereas GAPDH was analyzed as control. Representative blots for each group were shown. (d) Quantification of TH, PR-A, and PR-B expression. Western blots () in (c) were determined by a densitometric method. , .

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