Abstract: Objective To investigate the protective effect of curcumin on cultured rat hippocampal neurons with staurosporine(STS)-induced injury.Methods The primary neonatal rat hippocampal neurons were cultured and STS was used to induce nerve cell damage.The neurons cultured were assigned into control group,model group(20 μmol/L of STS),curcumin group(20 μmol/L),and curcumin pretreatment group(20 μmol/L of curcumin and STS).The change of cell morphology was observed with microscope.Survival rate of hippocampal nerve cells was determined with methyl thiazolyl tertazolium(MTT) assay and lactate dehydrogenase(LDH) release assay.The reactive oxygen species(ROS) positive-cell number was measured with immunofluorescence staining.The expressions of active caspase-3 and p-AKT were detected by western blot.Results The morphology damage of hippocampal neurons in curcumin pretreatment groups was slighter than that in model group.The viability of hippocampal neurons in curcumin pretreatment group was higher than in model group (0.877±0.016 vs 0.625±0.007,P<0.01).The cytotoxicity of hippocampal neurons in curcumin pretreatment group was significantly less than in model group(0.383±0.025 vs 0.582±0.051,P<0.01).ROS positive cells in model group were significantly greater than in curcumin pretreatment group.The expression of active caspase-3(Csp-3) in curcumin pretreatment group was significantly reduced compared to that in STS model group(0.951±0.089 vs 1.370±0.131,P<0.01 ) and the expression of p-AKT significantly increased(1.107±0.025 vs 0.611±0.002,P<0.01)in curcumin pretreatment group.Conclusion The protective effect of curcumin against STS-induced injury in cultured primary neonatal rat hippocampal neurons is likely through the inhibition of nerve cells,ROS release,the decrease of active caspase-3 expression,and the increase of p-AKT expression.