Effects of icariin on proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell induced by ox-LDL via impacting MAPK signaling pathway / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

This paper was aimed to study the effects of icariin (ICA) on the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) induced by oxidized low density lipoprotein (ox-LDL), and the molecular mechanism of the expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and MAPK signaling pathway. In this study, VSMC was induced by ox-LDL (50 mg•L⁻¹),the effect of ICA on the proliferation of VSMC was detected by MTT assay, Western blot and Real-time PCR. The results showed that after stimulation of ox-LDL, the proliferation activity of VSMC was increased, S phase, G₂/M phase cells were increased, G₀/G₁ phase cells were decreased, PCNA protein expression was enhanced; ICA (40, 20, 10 μmol•L⁻¹) could effectively inhibit ox-LDL-induced VSMC proliferation, S phase and G₂/M phase cells were decreased, the percentage of cells in G₀/G₁ phase were increased, PCNA expression was decreased, p38MAPK and ERK1/2 activation were inhibited. These results indicate that ICA can inhibit the proliferation of VSMC by reducing the expression of PCNA and blocking the p38MAPK and ERK1/2 signaling pathway.