Astragaloside, one of the main active ingredients in Astragalus membranaceus.

Male SD rats received right middle cerebral artery occlusion for 120 min and AST (40 mg/kg) was orally administered. The rats were decapitated 1, 3, 7, and 14 days after reperfusion. AST treatment could down-regulate expression of iNOS mRNA, while, NGF and TrkA mRNA were up-regulated. Data suggest that AST have the protective effects on focal cerebral ischemia in rats at the different reperfusion time points, the mechanism may be related to the antioxidation, regulated the expressions of iNOS, NGF and TrkA mRNA.

Briefly, MDA-MB-231 cells treated as indicated or tumor tissues are harvested and lysed in Mg2+ lysis buffer containing 50 mM Tris (pH 7.5), 10 mM MgCl2, 0.5 M NaCl, and protease inhibitor cocktail. Equal amounts of lysates are incubated with PAK-PBD beads at 4°C for 1 h. PAK-PBD beads are pelleted by centrifugation and washed with ish buffer containing 25 mM Tris (pH 7.5), 30 mM MgCl2, 40 mM NaCl. Active Rac1 is detected by western blotting.

Cell viability is determined by CCK-8 assay. To be brief, cultured NSCLC cells are seeded into 96-well plates at the density of 4×104 (cells/well). Then 10 μL?well CCK8 solution is added and incubated in dark at 37°C for another 2 h. The absorbance is determined with the wavelength of 490 nm.

Transient cerebral ischemia and reperfusion is prepared by BCCAO, as BCCAO is considered an ideal model to study transient cerebral ischemia and reperfusion injury-mediated inflammatory response. Mice are randomLy divided into the Sham, Model, Astragaloside IV (10 mg/kg) and Astragaloside IV (20 mg/kg) treatment groups. The Astragaloside IV treatment groups are intragastrically administered 7 days before the surgery and terminated on the day of sacrifice. On the day of the surgery, Astragaloside IV is administrated 2 h prior to ischemia. The Sham-operated and Model groups are treated with distilled water. After the mice are anesthetized with an intraperitoneal injection of chloral hydrate (350 mg/kg), the bilateral common carotid arteries are exposed and carefully separated with a small ventral neck incision and occluded twice (20 min each) with ligated surgical silk as described previously with minor modifications. There is a 10 min reperfusion period between the two occlusion periods (ischemia 20 min ? reperfusion 10 min ? ischemia 20 min). Sham-operated mice are subjected to the same surgical operation without the surgical silk ligation. Mouse body temperature is maintained at 37±0.5°C during the surgery with heating equipment until recovery from the anesthesia.

DMSO: 50.00 mg/mL (78.06 mM), Sonication is recommended.