Quercetin inhibits angiotensin II induced apoptosis via mitochondrial pathway in human umbilical vein endothelial cells

Y. Lu, R.-H. Wang, B.-B. Guo, Y.-P. Jia

Department of Cardiology, The first Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China. doctoryongping@163.com

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• Pharmacology

OBJECTIVE: Quercetin exhibits various biological functions including anti-oxidation, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, immunity and anticancer, etc. It can also lower blood pressure and improve blood capillary elasticity. Angiotensin II (Ang II) has been showed to induce apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells. In this study, we attempted to clarify the effect of quercetin on Ang II induced apoptosis.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured. The cytotoxicity was determined by MTT assay. HUVECs apoptosis was determined by DAPI staining and flow cytometry. The mitochondrial transmembrane potential was observed by JC-1 staining. The expression of cytochrome c, Bcl-2, Bax, activated-caspase-3 and activated-caspase-9 was measured by Western blot.

RESULTS: MTT assays showed Ang II decreased cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner in HUVECs. Notably, quercetin presented very little effect on HUVECs. Quercetin inhibited the effect of Ang II on HUVECs in a concentration- and time-dependent manner. Furthermore, the loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, upregulation of cytochrome c and Bax, downregulation of Bcl-2, and activation of caspase-9 and caspase-3 caused by angiotensin II were also recovered after treated with quercetin.

CONCLUSIONS: Quercetin could inhibit Ang II induced apoptosis of human umbilical vein endothelial cells via the mitochondrial pathway.

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