Promotion of pulmonary fibroblast proliferation and apoptosis by sodium nitroprusside.
The effects of nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on the proliferation and apoptosis and on Bcl-2, Bax and p53 proteins of pulmonary fibroblasts were investigated by using MTT cleavage assay, agarose gel electrophoresis and flow cytometric analysis. The results showed increases in the optical density (550 nm) of MTT cleavage assay, the number of cells and the proliferation index (PI), in comparison with the control. The number of apoptotic cells was also increased, though the percentage of apoptotic cells was too low to reveal oligonucleosomal fragmentation of characteristic ladder pattern, which is associated with apoptosis. In the meantime, the level of Bcl-2 decreased and that of Bax increased, while the p53 remained unchanged. These results suggest that exogenous NO has a dual effect on proliferation and apoptosis; and the action of NO on pulmonary fibroblasts is mainly proliferative. Down  regulation of Bcl-2 and up  regulation of Bax are implicated in the molecular mechanisms of this action.
Chen
X L
XL
Department of Pathophysiology, Institute of Basic Medicine, Hebei Medical University, Shijiazhuang 050017, China. chen_xiaoling123@sina.com.cn
Huang
S S
SS
Yao
Y X
YX
Li
W B
WB
Wang
X L
XL
Zhou
A M
AM
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects*; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000187:drug effects*; D008168:Lung / Q000166:cytology*; D020030:Nitric Oxide Donors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009599:Nitroprusside / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
D020030:Nitric Oxide Donors; D009599:Nitroprusside