Abstract: Objective To observe the effect of the high concentration of glucose on autophagy of rat’s Schwann cells in vitro and the effect of autophagy on the proliferation and apoptosis of Schwann cells cultured in high glucose medium. Method RSC96 cells were cultured. The expression of beclin1 and caspase-3 were detected by immunofluorescence and Western blot. The proliferation was detected by MTT. Result The expression of beclin1 in RSC96 cells cultured in high glucose medium was reduced (P<0.05), as well as the proliferation was decreased (P<0.05, P<0.01). Inhibition of autophagy resulted in aggravating the decrease of the proliferation of RSC96 cells cultured in high glucose medium (P<0.01) and upregulating the activity of caspase-3 (P<0.01). Conclusion The impairment of the high concentration of glucose increased apoptosis by downregulation of autophagy.

Key words: schwann cells, high glucose, autophagy, Beclin1, Caspase-3, apoptosis