We have prepared an aqueous extract of Achyranthes bidentata Blume,a commonly prescribed Chinese medicinal herb,and reported,in previous studies,that A.bidentata extract benefits nerve growth and prevents neuron apoptosis.In this study,we investigated the actions of ,4.bidentata extract on survival and growth of primarily cultured rat hippocampal neurons.The morphological observation revealed that neurite growth from hippocampal neurons was significantly enhanced by A.bidentata extract with similar effects to those induced by nerve growth factor (NGF),and the greatest neurite growth appeared on treatment with A.bidentata extract at 1 ttg/ml for 24 h.DNA microarray analysis indicated that there were 25 upregulated genes and 47 downregulated genes exhibiting significantly differential expression in hippocampal neurons treated with A.bidentata extract at 1 μg/ml for 6 h when compared to those in untreated hippocampal neurons.Real-time quantitative RT-PCR and West blot analysis demonstrated that the expression of growth-associated protein-43 in hippocampal neurons was upregulated at both mRNA and protein levels after treatment with A.bidentata extract,and the optimal dosage of the extract was also 1 μg/ml.These data confirm that A.bidentata extract could promote in vitro hippocampal neuronal growth in a dose- and time-dependent manner.(C) 2009 National Natural Science Foundation of China and Chinese Academy of Sciences.Published by Elsevier Limited and Science in China Press.All rights reserved.