title: Microcystins Induces Vascular Inflammation in Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells via Activation of NF-κB.
abstract: Microcystins (MCs) produced by toxic cyanobacteria cause serious water pollution and public health hazard to humans and animals. However, direct molecular mechanisms of MC-LR in vascular endothelial cells (ECs) have not been understood yet. In this study, we investigated whether MC-LR induces vascular inflammatory process in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Our data demonstrated that MC-LR decreased HUVECs proliferation and tube formation and enhanced apoptosis. MC-LR also induced intracellular reactive oxygen species formation (ROS) in HUVECs. The MC-LR directly stimulated phosphorylation of NF-κB. Furthermore, MC-LR also increased cell adhesion molecules (ICAM-1 and VCAM-1) expression in HUVECs. Taken together, the present data suggested that MC-LR induced vascular inflammatory process, which may be closely related to the oxidative stress, NF-κB activation, and cell adhesion molecules expression in HUVECs. Our findings may highlight that MC-LR causes potential damage to blood vessels.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Ministry of Education, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, Tongren Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1111 Xianxia Road, Shanghai 200336, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis / Q000187:drug effects; D002460:Cell Line; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D061307:Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D052998:Microcystins / Q000494:pharmacology*; D016328:NF-kappa B / Q000378:metabolism*; D018384:Oxidative Stress / Q000187:drug effects; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D052998:Microcystins; D016328:NF-kappa B; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species