Pinoresinol Diglucoside Alleviates oxLDL-Induced Dysfunction in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Deposition of oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL) is one of the initiators and promoters of atherosclerosis. Eucommia lignans were shown to possess antihypertensive effects. This study aimed to investigate the effects of pinoresinol diglucoside (PD), a Eucommia lignan, on oxLDL-induced endothelial dysfunction. HUVECs were treated with oxLDL and/or PD followed by assessing radical oxygen species (ROS), apoptosis, nitrogen oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity with specific assays kits, mRNA levels with quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and protein levels with western blot. PD abolished oxLDL-induced ROS and MDA production, apoptosis, upregulation of lectin-like oxidized LDL recptor-1 (LOX-1), intercellular Adhesion Molecule 1 (ICAM-1), and nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B-cells (NF-κB), and activation of p38MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinases)/NF-κB signaling. Meanwhile, PD alleviated oxLDL-caused inhibition of SOD activity, eNOS expression, and NO production. These data demonstrated that PD was effective in protecting endothelial cells from oxLDL-caused injuries, which guarantees further investigation on the clinical benefits of PD on cardiovascular diseases.

Rs5498 polymorphism may be a risk factor for coronary heart disease in Chinese population: evidence from a meta-analysis involving 5537 subjects.

Despite large numbers of studies from Chinese population related to the association between rs5498 polymorphism and coronary heart disease (CHD) risk, the results are inconsistent probably due to the difference in the nationalities. To further evaluate the impact of the rs5498 polymorphism on CHD risk of different nationalities population, we performed this meta-analysis. We comprehensively searched the eligible studies for the present meta-analysis through China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), PubMed, EMBASE databases. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were obtained to evaluate the strength of the association between rs5498 polymorphism and CHD risk. Finally, a total of 18 studies including 5537 subjects met the inclusion criteria. The pooled result showed that the rs5498 polymorphism was significantly associated with an increased risk of CHD in allele comparison model (OR=1.43, 95% CI=1.17-1.73, P=0.000), homozygote model (OR=1.23, 95% CI=1.03-1.46, P=0.000), heterozygote model (OR=1.23, 95% CI=1.03-1.46, P=0.018), dominant model (OR=1.45, 95% CI=1.21-1.74, P=0.001) and recessive model (OR=2.17, 95% CI=1.70-2.77, P=0.002). But subgroup analysis only supported the results from data of Han and Zhuang population in South China and North China. We did not find any evidences revealing some relationship between them in the Uygur population of Northwest China. Totally, the results of our meta-analysis indicate that the rs5498 polymorphism may be associated with coronary heart disease in Han and Zhuang population but not in Uyghur population. A large number of well-designed and multiracial studies should be conducted to re-evaluate the relationship.