Objective:To investigate the effect of Taurine on the expression of Caspase-3 and NF-κB in dorsal root ganglion of diabetic rats and explore its mechanism of nervous protective effect.Methods:Among 40 healthy male wistar rats

8 were used as control

and diabetes were induced on the other rats by the intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin(STZ) at a doze of 50mg/kg.Diabetes were characterized by an increase in blood glucose(>16.7mmol/L)48hours after injection.The successful diabetic rats models were randomly divided into diabetic mellitus(DM) group and taurine(TA) group.DM and TA groups were subdivided into DM1

DM2 and TA1

TA2 groups according to the duration of diabetes.The expression of Caspase-3 and NF-κB mRNA were studied by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) method.Results:NO obvious expression of Caspase-3 and NF-κB mRNA were found in the nomal groups compared with DM group after the 4th and 8th week.Under the intervention of taurine

the expression of Caspase-3 and NF-κB mRNA were inhibited compared with those in model.group(P<0.05).Conclusion:Taurine can inhibit apoptosis of the dorsal root ganglion induced by streptozotocin(STZ) by inhibiting the activation of NF-κB and down-regulating Caspase-3 gene.