en Behavioral Neuroscience Behavioral Neuroscience Original Original <p align="left" ><p><b><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" size="1">Introduction: </font></font><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1">Exposure to 3-4, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) leads to cell death. Herein, we studied the protective effects of ginger on MDMA- induced apoptosis. </font></font></font><b><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><p align="justify">Methods: </p></font></font><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1">15 Sprague dawley male rats were administrated with 0, 10 mg/kg MDMA, or MDMA along with 100mg/kg ginger, IP for 7 days. Brains were removed to study the caspase </font></font></font><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1">3, 8, and 9 expressions in the hippocampus by RT-PCR. Data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software using the one-way ANOVA test. </font></font></font><b><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><p align="justify">Results: </p></font></font><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1">MDMA treatment resulted in a significant increase in caspase 3, 8, and 9 as compared to the sham group (p<0.001). Ginger administration however, appeared to significantly decrease the same (p<0.001). </font></font></font><b><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" size="1"><p>Discussion: </p></font></font><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1">Our findings suggest that ginger consumption may lead to the improvement of </font></font></font><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#221e1f" face="Times New Roman,Times New Roman" size="1">MDMA-induced neurotoxicity. </font></font></font></b></b></b></b></p> Apoptosis,Ginger,MDMA,Caspase 329 333 http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-182&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Sara Soleimani Asl 1370031947532846003974 1370031947532846003974 No Bagher Pourheydar 1370031947532846003975 1370031947532846003975 No Fataneh Dabaghian 1370031947532846003976 1370031947532846003976 No Akram Nezhadi 1370031947532846003977 1370031947532846003977 No Amir Roointan 1370031947532846003978 1370031947532846003978 No Mehdi Mehdizadeh 1370031947532846003979 1370031947532846003979 Yes