Effects of She Xiang Bao Xin Wan (SXBXW) on the proliferation of primary cultured human umbilical artery vascular smooth muscle cells induced by endothelin-1

AIM: To observe the effects of She Xiang Bao Xin Wan (SXBXW) of Chinese patent medicine on the proliferation of primary cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) from human umbilical artery and stimulated by endothelin-1 (ET-1) in vitro. METHODS: The proliferation cell models of primary cultured VSMCs were established by ET-1 stimulation. Six groups in the experiment were divided into control group; ET-1 group; ET-1+SXBXW 0.25 g/L; ET-1+SXBXW 0.5 g/L; ET-1+SXBXW 1.0 g/L and ET-1+SXBXW 2.0 g/L groups, respectively. The proliferation induced by ET-1 and the suppression mediated by SXBXW on VSMCs were measured by MTT method. The inhibitory rate and the cytotoxicity of SXBXW were detected by lactate dehydrogenase colorimetry and trypan blue exclusion tests. The effect of ET-1 and SXBXW on the cell proliferation cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. RESULTS: Compared to control group, ET-1 significantly enhanced the proliferation of VSMCs (P<0.01). However, a certain dose of SXBXW inhibited effectively the proliferation of VSMCs induced by ET-1 in a dose-dependent manner (P<0.01). Meanwhile, SXBXW showed no influenced on both the number of living cells and the release of lactate dehydrogenase, although it inhibited the proliferation of VSMCs, indicating that SXBXW was no cytotoxicitic effect on VSMCs. ET-1 enhanced the proliferation of VSMCs by means of promoting the transition of the cell cycle from G1 phase to S phase. However SXBXW significantly inhibited the proliferation mediated by ET-1. CONCLUSION: SXBXW plays the role in suppressing VSMCs proliferation induced by ET-1. The mechanism may be involved in blocking the cell cycle from G1 phase into S phase.