ecstasy-induced caspase expression alters following ginger treatment

introduction: exposure to 3-4, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (mdma) leads to cell death. herein, we studied the protective effects of ginger on mdma- induced apoptosis. methods: 15 sprague dawley male rats were administrated with 0, 10 mg/kg mdma, or mdma along with 100mg/kg ginger, ip for 7 days. brains were removed to study the caspase 3, 8, and 9 expressions in the hippocampus by rt-pcr. data was analyzed by spss 16 software using the one-way anova test. results: mdma treatment resulted in a significant increase in caspase 3, 8, and 9 as compared to the sham group (p<0.001). ginger administration however, appeared to significantly decrease the same (p<0.001). discussion: our findings suggest that ginger consumption may lead to the improvement of mdma-induced neurotoxicity.