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Oxidative stress has been implicated in a variety of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Astrocytes play a significant role in maintaining survival of neurons by supplying antioxidants such as glutathione (GSH) to neurons. Recently, we found that noradrenaline increased the intracellular GSH concentration in astrocytes via β 3-adrenoceptor stimulation. These observations suggest that noradrenaline protects neurons from oxidative stress-induced death by increasing the supply of GSH from astrocytes to neurons via the stimulation of β 3-adrenoceptor in astrocytes. In the present study, we examined the protective effect of noradrenaline against H 2 O 2-induced neurotoxicity using two different mixed cultures: the mixed culture of human astrocytoma U-251 MG cells and human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, and the mouse primary cerebrum mixed culture of neurons and astrocytes. H 2 O 2-induced neuronal cell death was significantly attenuated by pretreatment with noradrenaline in both mixed cultures but not in single culture of SH-SY5Y cells or in mouse cerebrum neuron-rich culture. The neuroprotective

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