Abstract: To explore the role of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) of different concentrations in cultured cerebral cortex neurons of embryonic rats. Methods: The inverted microscope was used to observe the nature of dead cells and to count the number of the cells. Neuronspecific enolase(NSE) and cleaved caspase3 immunohistochemistry technique was used to determine the number of NSEpositive neurons and to observe the expression of caspase3 protein. Results: Both the number of cultured cells and the NSE positive neurons decreased obviously with ATP (10?mmol/L and 100?mmol/L) treatment, but the number of the cleaved caspase3 positive neurons increased obviously. Conclusion: ATP has dosedependent cytotoxicity on cultured cerebral cortex neurons of embryonic rats and caspase3 signal is necessary for the cell death.

Key words: Adenosine triphosphate, Neurons, Apoptosis, Embryo, Rats, Wistar, Cerebral cortex