The role of chalcones: helichrysetin, xanthohumol, and flavokawin-C in promoting neurite outgrowth in PC12 Adh cells.

Chalcones are a group of compounds widely distributed in plant kingdom. The aim of this study was to assess the neurite outgrowth stimulatory activity of selected chalcones, namely helichrysetin, xanthohumol and flavokawin-C. Using adherent rat pheochromocytoma (PC12 Adh) cells, the chalcones were subjected to neurite outgrowth assay and the extracellular nerve growth factor (NGF) levels were determined. Xanthohumol (10 μg/mL) displayed the highest (p < 0.05) percentage of neurite-bearing PC12 Adh cells and the highest (p < 0.05) NGF level in the culture medium of xanthohumol-treated cells. While, helichrysetin induced a moderately high numbers of neurite-bearing cells, flavokawin-C did not stimulate neurite outgrowth. This work supports the potential use of xanthohumol as a potential neuroactive compound to stimulate neurite outgrowth.