Parkinson's disease (PD) is one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorders in elders. Sesamin is a lignan compound and the active constituent of sesame oil with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. This study was carried out to explore the mechanisms underlying sesamin effect against unilateral striatal 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) model of PD. Intrastriatal 6-OHDA-lesioned rats were pretreated with sesamin at doses of 10 or 20 mg/kg/day for one week. Sesamin at a dose of 20 mg/kg attenuated motor imbalance in narrow beam test, lowered striatal level of malondialdehyde (MDA) and reactive oxygen species (ROS), improved superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, lowered striatal caspase 3 activity and alpha-synuclein expression, attenuated glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) immunoreactivity, depressed nigral neuronal apoptosis, and prevented damage of dopaminergic neurons using tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry. These findings reveal the reversal effect of sesamin in 6-OHDA model of PD via attenuation of apoptosis, astrogliosis, oxidative stress, and down-regulation of alpha-synuclein. (C) 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.