Abstract: Objective:To investigate the protective effects of lycopene against rotenone-induced injury in PC12 cells and to probe into its possible mechanisms. Methods:All experiments were carried out with PC12 in vitro, which were divided into 5 groups:control, model, lycopene (3, 10, 30μmol/L) preincubation. Cell viability was determined CCK-8 assay. PC12 cells were stained with PI and the percentage of different phases in the cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. Then ROS production of endothelial cells in different groups was detected. Supernates and cells were collected perspectively after different treatments for measuring LDH and MDA levels, as well as GSH, SOD with the corresponding detection kit according to the manufacturers instructions. Results:Lycopene restrained the apoptotic of cells. And rescued the mitosis of damaged PC12 (p<0.05) and stimulated the synthesis of DNA in S-phase of cell cycle, the activity of SOD, GSH, T-AOC were increased (p<0.05) . These contents of LDH, MDA and ROS were decreased (p<0.05) . Conclusion:Lycopene exerted protective effects against rotenone-induced injury in PC12 cells, which might act through its anti-oxidative effects and the decrease of ROS and the induction of antioxidant enzyme activity.