oleuropein attenuates deltamethrin-induced apoptosis in rat cerebellar purkinje neurons

background: deltamethrin (dm) is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide that can elicit neurotoxicity, and lead to apoptosis. there is accumulating evidence that oleuropein (oe) has anti-apoptotic effect. this study aimed at determining the dm toxicity and anti-apoptotic effect of oe pretreatment in cerebellar purkinje neurons. materials and methods: rats were randomly divided into four groups as follow: dm treated group (12.5 mg/kg single dose), oe treated group (20 mg/kg per day), dm plus oe treated group, and vehicle group. sections of cerebellum were taken 24 hours after deltamethrin injection and studied for histopathological and immunohistochemistry assessments. results: further characteristics of degeneration in purkinje neurons were observed in dm group compared with dm plus oe group. compared with dm group (9.56±1.69), the positive staining for bax in purkinje neurones decreased in dm plus oe group (2.99±0.50) but upper than oe (0.72±0.15) and vehicle (0.57±0.03) groups. compared with dm group (0.50±0.05), the positive staining for bcl-2 in purkinje neurons increased in dm plus oe group (3.29±0.18) but lower than oe (4.38±0.80) and vehicle (5.87±1.93) groups. conclusions: our results suggest that dm induces apoptosis in purkinje cells which is subsided by oleuropein.