title: Inhibition of rat vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation by extract of Ligusticum chuanxiong and Angelica sinensis.
abstract: Ligusticum chuanxiong (LC) and Angelica sinensis (AS) have been widely used as traditional Chinese medicine to treat some pathological settings such as atherosclerosis and hypertension. The aim of this paper is to determine the effects of the extract of LC and AS (ELCAS) on serum-induced vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC) proliferation, cell cycle and nitric oxide production. The results show that ELCAS significantly inhibited proliferation and protein synthesis of VSMC in a dose and time dependent manner. The cell population assessed by flow cytometry in the G(0)/G(1) phase increased 74% versus 79.8%, concomitant with a decrease in the S phase, 7.4% versus 4.2%, for control versus ELCAS (300 microg/ml). On the other hand, ELCAS significantly increased nitric oxide production of VSMC. The data suggest that ELCAS markedly inhibited VSMC proliferation by arresting G(1) to S progression, which may be associated with nitric oxide production.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, PR China.
authors.forename: Yong-Zhong
authors.initials: YZ
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Guang-Rong
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Ying-Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Guo-Guang
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Raimo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hiltunen
mesh_terms: D029971:Angelica sinensis / Q000737:chemistry*; D000818:Animals; D002453:Cell Cycle / Q000187:drug effects; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D030004:Ligusticum; D008297:Male; D009131:Muscle, Smooth, Vascular / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects*; D014176:Protein Biosynthesis / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; C101574:chuangxiong extract