Abstract: It has been reported that lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) at its lower concentrations prevents apoptosis induced by serumdeprivation in cultured cortical neurons when LPA is added into the cultural medium with serum withdrawal. The present study was designed to investigate whether LPA could also block the apoptosis induced by β-amyloid peptide fragment 31-35 (AβP31-35) in cultured cortical neurons by using techniques of DNA fragmentation electrophoresis, HO33342 staining, and TUNEL examinations.The results showed that pretreatment of LPA suppressed the AβP31-35-induced apoptosis only when LPA was applied to the cultured neurons with lower concentrations (1~10 μmol/L) and especially, with a preceding time of 12~24 h before the AβP31-35 exposure.These facts imply that LPA also acts as a neuroprotective factor against AβP31-35-induced apoptosis, though the mechanism underlying the protective action in this case may be more complex than that involved in the serum deprivation-induced apoptosis.