醫學臨床中，全世界每年因死於心血管疾病、蜘蛛膜下腔出血、頭部創傷、或休克引起的腦部缺血及大腦損傷的病患有數百萬人。這些病人也因缺乏有效率的即時治療，所以腦神經病引起的病狀和死亡情形是常見的結果。因為在當細胞處於一個缺氧-缺血的狀況下，神經細胞的死亡過程相關因素包括有：較差的細胞代謝過程、細胞毒性、細胞內鈣離子濃度平衡和氧化的壓力......等。而最終將導致細胞的壞死和/或細胞程式死亡的情形發生。
　　本研究中選用的實驗藥物--Magnolol， 是由中藥材「厚朴」裡萃取出的Mognolia 化合物。為一種脂溶性化合物。早在數千年前，已被中國人民拿來當藥草使用，用於治療胃部疾病，心血管及過敏疾病，或輕微氣喘等病症。根據中藥的調查報告中指出， Magnolol含有強烈的抗氧化及清除自由基之功能。並可以減少過氧化反應的損害，保護神經細胞對抗鉀氰化物引起的化學缺氧死亡。也間接指出Magnolol能保護神經元在缺氧-缺血後造成的細胞程式死亡。
　　研究中利用海馬迴切片組織這種介於體內及離體間的實驗，模擬因局部缺血而造成的腦部疾病實驗。並利用缺氧及葡萄糖的實驗模式，模擬體內中組織局部缺血的狀況。實驗中的海馬迴神經細胞損傷，都是利用短時間缺氧及葡萄糖的實驗造成的損傷，其可以模擬出在體內中，暫時性的缺血而造成的神經細胞損傷。
　　研究結果顯示，Magnolol藥物在適當的100μM濃度下，對於離體海馬迴組織的神經細胞，處於一個不同於化學毒性傷害的缺氧及缺葡萄糖環境下，擁有一定程度的神經細胞保護效果。並且，在神經細胞暴露於缺氧及缺葡萄糖環境後四小時內，Magnolol藥物亦有神經保護及修護的效果。

　In the medical clinical, millions die annually from hypoxic- ischemic brain damage due to cerebrovascular disease, subarachnoid hemorrhage, head trauma, shock, and postischemic injury following resuscitation. Neurologic morbidity and mortality are the common consequences because of the lack of efficient therapeutic alternatives. Neuronal death in hypoxia/ischemia injury is a complex event involving failure of metabolic processes, excitotoxicity, loss of calcium homeostasis and oxidative stress, among other factors. They eventually lead to necrotic and/or apoptotic cell death.
　Magnolol, an active component extracted from Mognolia officinalis. Meanwhile, M officinalis, as known in Chinese folk medicine as houpo, has long been utilized for treating stomach disorders, cardiovascular and allergic diseases such as thrombosis, bronchial asthma. On the basis of those reported investigations and traditional effect of the herb, it was strongly conceivable that magnolol can be a suitable compound for the development of free radical scavengers (antioxidant).
　Among the in vitro systems used to study ischemia-induced injuries, organotypic hippocampal slice cultures, combined with oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD), offer great advantages in that they mimic closely the situation in vivo. In hippocampal slice cultures, a brief ischemic insult by depriving the cultures of oxygen and glucose can cause a delayed cell death specific to the neuron. Thus, organotypic hippocampal slice cultures combined with OGD could provide a surrogate system for investigation of neuronal cell loss following ischemic injury to the brain.
　The results of our study obviously shows that 100μM Magnolol can protect hippocampal neuron cell from dying that suffer from OGD damage. Furthermore, after OGD 4 hours, Magnolol has the ability of repairing neuron cell injury. Unfortunately, OGD 6 hours later, Magnolol could not protect or recover neuron cell damage. Therefore, Magnolol can protect and repair hippocampal neuron cell damage caused by OGD in appropriate concentration and timing.

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