Protective effect of P7C3 on retinal ganglion cells from optic nerve injury.

To determine whether P7C3-A20, a proneurogenic neuroprotective agent, can protect the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) of rats from optic nerve crushing. The left optic nerve of 67 rats was crushed, and 5.0 mg/kg/day of P7C3-A20 (crush-P7C3) or its vehicle (crush-placebo) was injected intraperitoneally for 3 days from one day prior to the crushing. The protective effects were determined by the number of Tuj-1-stained RGCs and by the ratio of the mRNA levels of BAX/Bcl-2 on day 7. The levels of NAD and NAD-related genes were also determined. The density of RGCs was 2009.4 ± 57.7 cells/mm P7C3-A20 can protect RGCs from optic nerve crushing possibly through preserving the NAD levels in the optic nerves.