Atherosclerosis is characterized by the buildup of plaque inside arteries. Our recent studies demonstrated that polyphenolic natural products can reduce oxidative stress, inflammation, angiogenesis, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia. A previous study also showed that mulberry water extract (MWE) can inhibit atherosclerosis and contains considerable amounts of polyphenols. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated whether mulberry polyphenol extract (MPE) containing high levels of polyphenolic compounds could affect vascular smooth muscle cell (VSMC; A7r5 cell) motility. We found that MPE inhibited expression of FAK, Src, PI3K, Akt, c-Raf, and suppressed FAK/Src/PI3K interaction. Further investigations showed that MPE reduced expression of small GTPases (RhoA, Cdc42, and Rac1) to affect F-actin cytoskeleton rearrangement, down-regulated expression of MMP2 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA through NFκB signaling, and thereby inhibited A7r5 cell migration. Taken together, these findings highlight MPE inhibited migration in VSMC through FAK/Src/PI3K signaling pathway.
Keywords: FAK signaling; migration; mulberry; polyphenol; vascular smooth muscle cell.